


Love - 40

by Catstealers



Category: Carol (2015), The Price of Salt - Patricia Highsmith
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Tennis, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, F/F, more like enemies to teammates to friends to lovers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-05
Updated: 2018-09-25
Packaged: 2019-05-02 10:46:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 25,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14543046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Catstealers/pseuds/Catstealers
Summary: Carol is a world renowned tennis player hoping to ease her way back into the sport after taking a break to have and care for Rindy. With the help of her best friend and former tennis partner Abby Gerhard, she meets Therese Belivet, a young up and coming singles player. With the 2018 season rapidly approaching, they get set up to try out being partners. They both quickly discover just how much they can learn from each other, both in tennis and in love.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello and welcome! Before we begin I just want to outline a few things:
> 
> \- There is a lot of tennis terminology in this fic. If anything confuses you just ask and I'll be happy to explain it out!  
> \- I've aged Carol down a bit for the sake of the fic/sport. Therese is still 19, but Carol is 28. This means she had Rindy at 24 and got married at 23.  
> \- This fic will follow the 2018 WTA schedule and will feature some real life tennis players/announcers at times  
> \- I'm not a writer by any means but this idea really has haunted me since I first thought of it 2 months ago so please be a little easy on me!  
> \- I hope you enjoy :)

**October 10th, 2017**

**New Jersey**

 

_ “What a night at the US Open! Here is the winning moment on the court for Carol Ross-Aird.” _

_ The sound of the heavy hit being shown is almost as loud as the deep grunt let out by Carol on the screen. The ball flies across the court, almost skimming the tip of the net on its way over. The shot is deep, way too close to the baseline for her opponent to grab and hit decently given her positioning. The returning ball smacks into the net before dropping on the court. It bounces twice before Carol is throwing her racket and jumping in the air.  _

_ “Carol continues her reign here in New York.” One announcer says. The other, “Yes, Carol defending her crown, a hard fought match against long time friend, Abby Gerhard. Winning in 3 sets, her fifth championship overall at the US Open; pure jubilation as you can see.” _

_ The camera switches to Carol, dressed to the nines and makeup done on Good Morning America. She looks happy, her eyes shining bright and the smile on her face is genuine.  Robin is heard off to the side, “Can we please welcome our US Open champion, Carol Ross-Aird.” The smile on Carol’s face somehow grows bigger before the video begins to go in reverse, starting up again from the heavy hit and the deep grunt. The video replays to Carol’s appearance on Good Morning America before being rewound once again.  _

“Turn that off, you nitwit.”

Abby Gerhard picked up the TV remote, turning the video off herself. She looked down at her friend sitting on the couch, the solemn look on her face almost scaring her. “Why are you even watching this interview? What is it, 6 years old?” She asks with a chuckle. 

Carol shook her head and looked up at her friend. “5 years ago. 2013 US Open championships.” Carol moved over on the couch and patted the seat next to her, turning slightly sideways once Abby sat down next to her, shaking her head in jest.

“Your last year, I should have known,” she paused, contemplating her next words carefully. She finally decided to just be blunt about it. “Carol, why are you torturing yourself?”

Carol tensed up at the question, but relaxed after a moment. Abby waited patiently for her friend to speak. Carol hadn’t been willing to talk about tennis in years, let alone watch old footage of herself. Abby was surprised, but deep down inside she was also a little excited. Since the proposed divorce, she could feel her best friend coming back to her; saw the brightness being returned. 

Carol ran her hands through her hair and let out a long sigh. “I miss it.” She whispered, before repeating herself louder a second time. “I miss it and I want to go back.”

Abby couldn’t stop the smile from breaking out on her face. This was exactly what she had hoped for; what she had tried to gently nudge Carol into since the divorce. Abby tried to be patient and let Carol finish speaking first, though.

It almost seemed like Carol was done before she opened her mouth again and then quickly closed it without speaking. “What is it? You know you can tell me anything.” Abby pushed. Carol nodded and looked directly into Abby’s eyes before continuing. “I hate him. I hate what he did to me and I hate that he took the one thing I loved the most away from me. He's gone now and I want it back. Tennis I mean. I want to play again." She paused to wipe at the tears threatening to fall, looked up at her best friend, and smiled. It was a smile Abby hadn't seen in a long time; almost since that 2013 interview Carol had been watching just minutes before. 

"I want you to coach me." Abby was about to butt in, eager to coach her best friend and keep that smile on her face. She couldn't even think of the others at her tennis club at the moment, her mind was stuck on her friend's happiness. Carol continued on, though.

"Please say yes. I know it's selfish of me, but I don't think I can do this without you." More tears pooled in the blond's eyes. Abby reached her hands forward, cupping her friend's face and wiping away the tears. She leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on the other woman’s forehead. “Of course I’ll coach you, you nitwit.” Abby laughed and placed another kiss on Carol’s forehead, releasing this one with a loud smacking sound. She leaned back, but left her hands on the other woman’s face and tenderly stroked her cheeks. 

“We have a lot of work to do.” 

. . .

**October 12th, 2017**

**New York**

 

_ Thwack _

Therese sighed as the ball smacked the tape, falling back on her side of the court. She dropped her racket on the ground, grabbing the bottom of her shirt to wipe the sweat from her brow.

“You know you can’t take a break until you get 25 first serves in in a row. Let’s go, get moving!” Her coach yelled from the other side of the court. Kremlin was coming up and since she was the only one from the club going, she got the special treatment for the past few weeks. Therese would have been thrilled if she wasn’t so tired. 

With a sigh, she bent over to pick her racket back up. She walked back to the half empty hopper and grabbed three more balls, two going straight up her skirt as the third sat on her racket. This was her second hopper’s worth of attempts. 25 serves in. That’s all she had to do. Something was off today, though. Therese could sort of feel it in the air at the club, almost as if her coach wasn't really all there. Not that that was an excuse for her own serving failures, but it definitely wasn’t helpful. If she voiced her concern she’d be laughed at for being too sensitive, so she kept her mouth shut. 

She wound up to serve another, but stopped herself as she heard someone enter the courts. None of the other players were supposed to come in at this time so she quickly looked over to the intruder while letting the ball drop in front of her. To her complete surprise the ‘intruder’ was none other than Carol Ross. Her idol. The very woman who inspired her growing up to continue her passion for tennis. Well, ex-idol. Therese dropped her racket at her feet.

“Carol, I’m glad you could make it!” Her coach yelled across to the other woman. Carol waved slightly and made her way over. Therese took note of the matching gray and coral Nike tennis outfit and the bag on her shoulder. Was she here to play? “Did I fall asleep or something and miss you get all your serves in? No break, let’s go!” Her coach yelled back at her before making her way over to Carol. 

Therese bent back over to pick up her racket once again, suddenly a lot more tired and thirsty than she was before. She tried hard not to pay attention to the older women on the side of the court, but she couldn’t help but listen. 

All she could think about was Carol being here in the same club as her. In middle school she had worshipped the older woman. It wasn’t until she finally saved up enough money to go to the 2014 US Open specifically to see Carol. Tickets were expensive but she got them for the first day of the tournament, she didn’t care if she saw Carol in the finals or in the first round, she just wanted to watch her idol play. Except Carol never showed up for her match, leaving thousands of fans disappointed, including herself. After that Carol just sort of disappeared. And then next thing everyone knew, she was pregnant. 

Therese didn’t think she’d ever see the woman holding a tennis racket again and yet here she was. Most people thought she’d never come back. Mostly because in an interview after giving birth she said she’d never be coming back. She had said life was about more than just tennis and she was happier now without it. At the time, Therese didn’t think she looked too happy, but she was too angry to see her idol quit to care. She was young and the woman she looked up to most had just said that tennis wasn’t actually that important in the grand scheme of things. Of course it hurt.

“Is this the girl you were telling me about, Abby?” Carol had asked her coach. Therese was so surprised they had been talking about her that she completely botched her serve, the ball flying straight against the wall like a rocket. She blushed a bright red, embarrassed to mess up so badly in front of her idol. She turned towards them in what she hoped was a subtle movement. It proved to be the exact opposite of that as she made eye contact with Coach Gerhard, the other woman rolling her eyes in response. “Just take a break, nitwit,” she relented. 

Therese mumbled her thanks, still too embarrassed to even look at Carol. She jogged off to the bench with her bag and grabbed her Gatorade from the pouch, draining it quickly. She took a seat next to her bag and looked over to the two older women. They seemed to be talking about her, but she wasn’t too sure, until her coach pointed right at her. She sat up a little straighter as Carol looked over towards her and gave the woman a small smile, hoping to receive one in return. Instead, the older blond just frowned and looked back at the other woman. 

At Coach Gerhard’s insistence, they started making their way towards Therese, to her complete horror. Carol seemed apprehensive about whatever she was being told which made Therese look down towards her shoes. She had no idea what was going on, but she still felt lousy about the way Carol was reacting to her. She could hear some of their conversation as they got closer.

“Just hit with her for a bit, she’s the best at the club besides me and I think we both know I’m getting a little too old for this sport.” That comment from her coach brought a teasing smile to Carol’s lips. “You never could keep up with me anyway.” Carol shot back with a laugh. Therese loved the smile on Carol’s face and loved the sound of her smile even more. She found herself blushing once again in front of the older woman. Neither seemed to notice her until she spoke up, injecting herself into the conversation. “I seem to remember the two of you going back and forth on wins more often than not.” She supplied matter of factly. 

They both turned to the younger woman, a frown on Carol’s face and a shit eating grin on Abby’s. “Yes, but I always won the tournament here and that’s all that matters really.” Abby was ready to drop it, but clearly Carol and Therese were not. 

Therese looked directly into Carol’s eyes, a rather blank look on her face. “I would argue that the ability to win on more than just a hard court is what really matters. You’ve never won Wimbledon or Roland-Garros. I think Coach Gerhard’s wins there say more than your wins here.”

The courts were quiet as Therese and Carol had their stare off while Abby shot daggers at her pupil. Finally Carol broke the silence.

“I’m leaving.” And with that she spun on her heel and made her way towards the exit. Therese gaped after her as Abby gave chase, catching up to her quickly. “Take a lap, kid.” Abby yelled over her shoulder as she caught up to her friend. Therese sighed but took off, starting her trek around the twelve courts in the club.

. . . 

She collapsed on the bench after finishing her laps, chugging her other Gatorade. She had already been so tired and the club was big. Not to mention that when she was almost done Abby came back in and held up two fingers, signalling her to take two extra laps. By the time her heart slowed down to a normal pace, both Abby and Carol were back in the gym.

The older woman looked between the two of them and sighed. “Listen, I don’t need you two to be friends. I don’t care if you both go home and make voodoo dolls of the other and strangle them. All I care about is getting you both hitting. With each other.”

Therese nodded up at her coach, not risking saying no to the woman. The ball was now in Carol’s court and Therese almost hoped she’d say no. To everyone’s surprise, Carol agreed. 

. . . 

They started off slow with mini tennis. Carol looked disgusted at the very idea, claiming they were ‘babying her’, but she agreed to it as Abby argued for it. Therese decided to keep her mouth shut which was probably the right idea. 

Carol’s form was rusty, if Therese was being honest. Obviously she wasn’t about to say that out loud, she didn’t have a death wish after all, but she was surprised Abby hadn’t said anything. Instead she just watched silently from the side.

Carol hit most balls nowhere near her even though Therese made sure each ball went right back to her. Carol didn’t seem to care too much that most of her balls were hit outside the lines or even that her form was terrible. She just seemed concentrated on Therese and how she was hitting. It surprised her and caught her a little off guard. 

Finally, Abby had them move back. Since Therese was already warmed up from the previous two hours of training, her coach simply asked Carol if she wanted to jump right into a game. Therese was shocked when the older woman said yes. Why would Carol want to play a game when she couldn’t even hit the ball to her in their warm up? Instead of thinking too much into it, she grabbed a few balls from the hopper and set up to serve.

She wound up slowly, preparing to hit the ball much slower than usual, maybe even slower than her second serve. With the way Carol was hitting before, why embarrass her with a serve way too fast for her to hit back. The serve bounced in the middle of the box and Carol wound up, her form looking much better now than it did before. Therese stayed flat footed, expecting the ball to either be hit softly back or out.

Carol made contact, the loud pop from her old Babolat racket reverberating through the club. Before Therese could even react, the ball smacked at her feet on her backhand side, forcing her to scramble to hit a decent shot back. The ball floated over the net, which Therese was thankful for. She took her eyes off the ball to look at Carol who had made her way to the net at some point during Therese’s scramble. The ball was put away easily and Therese didn’t even bother going for it. The play was effortless and Therese felt not only confused but embarrassed.

How could a woman who couldn’t even hit the ball in during a warm up hit a shot like her first return? Sure, Therese’s serve wasn’t the amount of power it normally would be, but she felt as though she was being played. Before she could even question where the hell that shot had come from, Abby was yelling at her to serve again.

Therese took a deep breath and switch to the add side, winding up for a much harder serve this time. The ball bounced to the back right corner of the box, directly to Carol’s backhand. Instead of a backhand, though, Carol hit a forehand directly down the line. The shot was much too hard and fast for Therese to get it, but she tried anyway, hoping not to get yelled at by her coach. As she thought, she didn’t even get close to the ball. 

“Why did you hit it directly to her forehand side? Are you really that tired?” Abby shouted at her. Therese never understood why she yelled when the club was quiet and it was just them there, but now certainly wasn’t the time to ask. “I thought I was hitting it to her backhand.” She replied lamely. 

Hearing Therese’s response, Carol actually laughed. Laughed at her! “You were right, Abby, she doesn’t think at all while playing.”

Therese bristled at the comment. Sure, Abby had told her before that she needed to add more strategy and thought to her gameplay to get her further. And, yes, she probably should have realized Carol was a lefty when they were warming up. But she wasn’t about to stand here and let Carol laugh at her.

She switched to the other side, ready to serve again. She would be ready this time. Carol was clearly a deep player still, she always was in the past. Therese served a monster serve and moved to the center of the court, setting up a few paces back to prepare for the deep shot. She’d prove them both wrong now, this was a thoughtful move!

She could have cried as Carol dropped the ball right over the net. 

Therese didn’t even bother sprinting after it, it was a lost cause. Carol laughed again; laughed at her. Abby just smiled in response; not necessarily at her, but it made her feel better than Carol’s mocking laugh. 

She still had one more point before the game ended. Love - 40. No big deal. She switched the grip on her racket and served, arcing the ball. The ball landed on the back line in the middle and then kicked hard to the left as it landed. Carol lunged for the ball, hitting it back deep to Therese. It was a good serve, and Abby told her as much as they continued hitting back and forth to each other. 

Therese had an idea and she was almost sure she was right. Carol was hitting winners, or at least what she thought would be winners. Each shot was deep and they forced Therese to sprint back and forth on her side. Her returns were hard and deep, but more often than not went right back to Carol. 

Therese was small and she was fast, it was one of her strengths that made her hard to beat in the lower levels. Against top seeded players, they had no problem, but against people that made mistakes, that’s where she won. Carol had to mess up eventually, she’d been out of the game for too long to successfully keep up with a long rally. 

Finally the opportunity presented itself when Carol had to lunge for a backhand slice. The ball floated relatively easily over the net and Therese sprinted up, ready to put it away. She waited for the ball to drop to her racket level, ready to put it away and put an end to the point. She dropped the ball lightly on the other side of the net. A perfect placement given Carol’s location.

When she looked up to admire her shot, she stood in shock to see Carol already there. She drove the ball straight past Therese and to the back line. Therese never even saw her get up to the net, nor did she understand how the older woman could have gotten there so quickly. 

Carol approached her and placed her hand on Therese’s shoulder. “You project.” Was all she said as she walked off the court. 

Therese stood there, her eyes wide and mouth hung open. She clenched her racket and got ready to give Carol a piece of her mind. Before she could walk towards the older woman she felt a different hand on her shoulder, squeezing down. She looked up to Abby and winced at the pressure on her sore muscle. “Why don’t you go home for the evening, Therese. It’s late and I’ve kept you here long enough. Not to mention you had morning training as well today.” She patted the girl towards the bench.

Carol got up and let Therese pack up her stuff. Once Therese was all packed she didn’t even bother looking at the other two women as she started walking out. Abby slightly worried, called after her. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning, alright Therese?”

The younger woman didn’t bother answering as she walked out the door. She threw her bag in her car and got in the driver’s seat before turning the car on. She went to put it in reverse to begin her trip home. She tightened her grip on the gear shift and leaned forward, resting her head on the steering wheel. 

She thought of Carol’s cruel laugh and cried.


	2. Chapter 2

**October 12th, 2017**

**New York**

 

Therese drained the rest of the liquid in her glass and slammed it down on the bar counter she was leaning up against. 

“She laughed at me!” She yelled to the group she was with. Her boyfriend, Richard, winced at the volume of her voice while the McElroy brothers just looked exasperated. They shared a brief look before Dannie decided to take one for the team and confront the other girl. 

“Therese, you haven’t stopped talking about Carol since we started this little ‘going away’ outing. We get it, she was a bitch, but can we please talk about something else?” Dannie tried gently. 

Therese looked around at her boyfriend and his best friend as they both nodded their heads in agreement. Therese looked down in embarrassment and apologized softly, too soft for everyone to hear in the loud bar. Richard nudged her shoulder gently. “Don’t let that old hag get you down right before your last tournament of the season.” He joked, the other two guys laughing along with him. For some reason, Therese didn’t feel like laughing. She didn’t like when they said bad things about the other player, though she didn’t really know why. 

She had spent the whole night retelling the afternoon’s events in vivid detail to everyone’s displeasure. They seemed interested the first time at least. But once Therese described the exact outfit Carol had been wearing for the fourth time, the boys had had enough. She tried to talk about other things, she really did. But each time she opened her mouth some random detail about Carol came out instead. 

Of course it made sense that she was focused on what had happened at the courts, which is why it took this long for Dannie to even say anything. Any sane person wouldn’t be able to shut up after their idol growing up turned out to be a complete and utter bitch. It was heartbreaking and incredibly frustrating. 

One thing Therese couldn’t stop thinking about, though, was whether Carol would show up again. Would she come back to the club when they returned from Moscow? Would Therese be expected to hit with her again? But the biggest question Therese had, was why Carol was hitting now anyway. As far as everyone knew, Carol hadn’t picked up a racket since she quit in 2013. But the way she moved on the court earlier would have been impossible for a woman who hadn’t played in 5 years. Therese wished she could just stop thinking about it, thankfully her friends were quick to try to get her out of her own head.

“Speaking of your tournament, should you really be drinking this much the night before your flight?” Dannie asked hesitantly. Therese shrugged in response. “It doesn’t matter if I’m hungover on the flight since it’s about 10 hours anyway. Coach Gerhard will yell at me tomorrow no matter how I show up.” She laughed along with her friends at the mention of her hardass coach. Richard and Dannie were afraid of her, but Phil got along well with Abby. 

The boys usually attended the big tournaments and the smaller ones that were close. Moscow was an understandable exception, but she did still sometimes feel jealous when her opponent would have a full players box while hers would only hold her actual coach. Abby tried reassuring her once by saying that meant she had less people to disappoint when she was out on the court. Somehow it actually made Therese feel better.

The boys finished their drinks and they all decided to leave so Therese could get a somewhat decent night sleep. They grabbed an Uber and the three boys squished into the back while Therese sat in the front. They dropped Phil and Dannie off at their apartment first before heading to Therese’s place. Richard tried to get out with Therese, but she threw out a few excuses about sleeping well and an early flight. Richard looked disappointed just as he always did when he was rejected, but he didn’t push which Therese was thankful for. 

She dragged her feet up the four flights of stairs to get to her studio apartment. Once she was inside she dropped her sweater and bag onto the floor before collapsing onto her bed, passing out quickly.

 

**October 14th, 2017**

**Moscow**

 

Therese had slept off her hangover the entire flight to Moscow and felt much better than when the trip started. She had woken up the previous morning with a terrible headache and dry mouth. She had taken a cab to the airport, arriving earlier than everyone else. Instead of waiting for everyone to arrive, she just headed up to the private plane, collapsing on a bed in the back room and slept the whole way. 

When she finally came to, the plane had landed and the sun was beginning to rise. She stood on shaky legs and ran a hand through her disheveled hair. She looked off to the side to see a small meal that Abby must have left for her. She scarfed down the two sandwiches and guzzled the milk with it just as fast. 

Therese pulled back the curtain on the little back room to see when they were getting off the plane, but immediately stopped in place when she saw who was sitting and talking with Abby. 

“What are you doing here?” She asked rudely before she could even think to stop herself. 

Carol turned around to face her, a bored look on her face. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Abby asked me to come. She wants me to check out the competition before the season ends.” 

So did this mean Carol was trying to get back into the game? Why else would she have called the other girls competition? Therese had so many things she wanted to ask the older woman and maybe it was because she just woke up, but the question that left her mouth wasn’t one she would have planned to say. 

“How is you being here, on my plane, none of my business?” Therese stood tall and refused to back down as Carol glared daggers at her. Abby stood up as well and sighed, clapping her hands to get everyone’s attention.

“First, this is my plane. Therese you haven’t won a single tournament, how in the world could you afford this plane? Second, Carol can you please treat Therese with a little more respect? Like it or not, she’s a good player, especially for her age. I was hoping you’d see that here in the tournament. She has a good first pick and I think she’ll be able to make it to at least the quarter finals, maybe further. Third, can you two just be civil for the next few days? You can kill each other when we get back to America.”   
Therese and Carol were left gaping at their coach as Abby made her way off the plane. She turned back to the two of them with a smirk. “Well, are you two coming?” The two players grabbed their small bags and rushed off the plane, leaving the attendants to grab the rest. 

. . . 

Abby chose to give Therese a light workout that afternoon which Therese was extremely thankful for. Most of the afternoon was spent working on groundstrokes and serves. Therese made a decent amount of mistakes in the beginning with Carol watching not too far away, but the older woman kept her mouth shut for a majority of the session, only answering questions if Abby asked them. 

Abby fed a ball out wide on the wing, forcing Therese to sprint after it. She reached it easily enough and sent the ball flying back to Abby with a one handed backhand. She quickly pivoted and made her way back to the center to get ready for her coach’s return, but was surprised when Abby didn't send another back towards her. 

“Hey, Carol, you want to see something cool?” Abby yelled up to Carol on the bleachers. Carol leaned forward, placing her arms on the railing in front of her and waved her hand almost as if to say ‘yes’. Abby must have taken it as an affirmative statement because she turned back to face Therese with a smile that scared the younger girl. Looks like that never meant anything good for her. 

“Let’s run through my favorite drill to show off for Carol.” Abby instructed. Therese nodded and walked over to the bench to put her racket down before leaning over to make sure her shoes were tied up nice and tight and made her way back to the center of the court. 

The drill they were about to start was an agility exercise that Therese really excelled at. She may not have been as strong as a lot of the other pros but she was, without a doubt, one of the fastest. The drill was easy enough, Abby would throw a tennis ball in a certain area and Therese would have to run and catch it after 1 bounce. Therese was used to the clay courts back home, but everything was hard court here. That would mean the bounce of the thrown ball wouldn't be as high as she was used to when playing this game. She moved from foot to foot, staying on her toes and preparing for the first throw. 

The first throw was relatively easy as it arced to the back line on the right side. Therese glided towards it easily enough, catching it in her right hand before rolling it off to the side and out of the way. She moved back to the middle to wait for the next throw. 

She chanced a glance up at Carol and was disappointed to see how bored she looked. She was about to look away but stood her ground as Carol’s eyes met hers. She found herself memorized and unable to look away, the woman's bored and sad eyes seemed to just suck her in. 

“Pay attention, you nitwit!” Came a yell from across the court along with a ball that hit her straight in the side of the head. Therese quickly grabbed her head with a groan. The ball hit her much too hard to be thrown which meant Abby had to have hit it with her racket. She heard Carol laugh off to the side and felt her face get hot, both out of anger and embarrassment. 

“Sorry,” Therese called back and got ready to go through the drill again. The next throw wasn’t as nice as the first. Therese sprinted up to the net, crouching low to catch the ball before it bounced for a second time. She didn’t have much time to recover before Abby was throwing another ball, arced high to the back left line. She took off in a diagonal line, getting to the ball more easily than the last. 

They got into a rhythm of sorts as balls were landing first short and then thrown back deep. Occasionally Abby would throw a ball right by the net and then trick Therese into beginning a sprint to the back line before throwing a second ball up at the net. Her ankles would be killing her tonight with all of the pivoting she was doing. 

Finally, they were beginning to run low on balls in the hopper next to her coach. She went through four more throws before Abby yelled back to her, “Last ball,” and Therese was thankful to be almost done. Knowing Abby, though, she knew the last one would be next to impossible to grab since it almost always was when they played this game. Just as she assumed, the last ball was very close to the net and very much to the left.

Therese took off from her position in the back right corner. She  _ had  _ to catch that ball. She felt a desperate need to prove herself to Carol and she knew the woman would be shocked if she were able to get to the ball in time. Time seemed to slow down as the ball reached its highest point after the first bounce. It was all downhill from here and Therese somehow found herself moving even faster than before. But she wasn’t going to make it.

In a last ditch effort, she flung her body forward, fumbling for the ball in front of her before ending in a roll. She laid on the ground for a few seconds before lifting her right hand in the air, the ball clenched firmly in her fist. 

She heard a laugh from her right that sounded a lot like Abby. Therese sat up slowly, a little sore from her dive and saw Abby doubled over clapping her hands. She looked over to Carol with a huge smile on her face in accomplishment. The older woman looked back at her with her mouth wide open, though she shut it quite quickly after they made eye contact. Carol sat back on the bleacher, her eyes still wide, and smiled down at Therese which just made the younger woman’s smile grow even wider.

“I told you she was special,” Abby yelled to Carol as she came around the net to help Therese back up on her feet. 

“I think that’s enough for today. Let’s rest for the first round and get some ice on that body.”

 

**October 16, 2017**

**Moscow**

 

Carol sat down with Abby in Therese’s box as the younger girl warmed up on the court. She almost felt a little sad for her seeing the completely empty box she sat in. “Does her family only come to local matches?” She found herself asking her friend. Abby looked back towards her sadly. “I don't know the whole story, but Therese doesn't have any family. She has a group of friends that come sometimes and I've offered to take them on the jet for international tournaments but she always declines,” Abby finished her explanation with a shrug and Carol nodded her understanding. 

She couldn't imagine going through all of this with such a small support system. Back when she was playing she had her parents at every single match along with grandparents, aunts and uncles, and friends at some of the more easily accessible ones. To think that this girl only had her coach just broke her heart. 

Carol looked over to the court as it was starting. Therese would get to serve first which was good. Abby had explained to her earlier that Therese won about 67% of the matches where she served first. Her friend believed it had something to do with the girl’s momentum. It all sounded rather silly and childish to Carol, though the girl was only 19; A little immaturity on the court was to be expected. 

Her first match was against Elena Rybakina, an 18 year old Russian native. The girl wasn’t bad according to Abby, but she was ranked about 100 points lower than Therese. Abby had mentioned a few days prior that Therese’s ranking hadn’t been able to break the 100 mark, but apparently she was getting closer. Carol couldn’t quite remember off the top of her head, but she thought Abby had said 102 was her current ranking. Either way, the matchup should make for an easy first round. 

. . . 

The first set had been easy enough for Therese with a final score of 6-2. Rybakina seemed to still be warming up so Carol wondered if she’d fire back in the second set. The girl hadn’t won her two of the eight games until the very end anyway.

Therese was certainly quick on the court, but Carol wanted to see the speed she'd been shown the other day. To say she had been impressed would have been a complete understatement; she'd never seen that sort of agility before. Carol supposed she was quite tiny, certainly not the smallest, but she was pretty lithe. 

Speed wasn't really enough when it came to tennis, though, and Carol had proved that the one time they hit together. The girl just didn’t think, like at all. Carol knew with absolute certainty that if Therese added just a tiny bit of strategy, or even just paid attention to whether her opponent was right-handed or left-handed, then she would break 100; probably even break 50! She was good, and Carol wasn’t too big to admit that. Well, maybe she wouldn’t admit it to Therese. Something about the girl just rubbed her the wrong way. 

Carol wondered if that was the reason Abby wanted them to hit together. Maybe her friend was hoping that some of Carol’s intelligence would rub off on the younger girl. Carol didn’t really see what she would be getting out of it besides a warm up partner and a headache.

Abby straightened up and adjusted her hat next to her so Carol looked at the court to see Therese looking right at them. Abby took her hat off and put her sunglasses on instead and then Therese nodded her head. 

“Are you communicating right now?” Carol asked her friend in disbelief. 

“Of course I am,” Abby replied. “Isn’t that was coaches do?”

Carol paused to stare directly at her friend and huffed. “So, what did you say?”

“Hat on means to get to the ball no matter what. Hat off means conserve energy. The girl’s a firecracker on the court and I don’t need her burning out this early. She didn’t have to use full speed once last set so she might as well take it down a notch for the second,” Abby explained while Carol nodded along. 

It made sense, of course it did. Anyone with a brain would understand conserving your energy, but why did Abby have to explicitly tell Therese when to slow down? Shouldn’t she know her own limits? As if reading her thoughts, Abby continued on.

“Therese is purely blind passion, as you’ve seen. She doesn’t think out there, she just does. And it’s great, don’t get me wrong, I love working with her, but she needs to be told a lot of pretty obvious things. She does better when someone’s leading her and that’s why I’m trying to convince her to move into doubles as well. If she had someone on that court dictating her every move point by point, then she’d be unstoppable. At least for now. She’s young and I fully recognize that. So doubles is the thing I’ve been pushing lately. I have a few ideas for a partner but nothing set in stone yet,” Abby trailed off, looking at Carol. Carol hummed and nodded, letting her friend know she heard what she said. 

“Well, I hope you find someone good for her. I’m sure her perfect partner is out there somewhere,” Carol added, returning her attention to the court since the second set was about to start.

“Thanks, but I’m pretty sure I already found her,” Abby replied and turned her attention back to the court as well.

. . . 

“15 - 40.” The umpire announced, signalling for Rybakina to serve the ball. Therese got on her toes, preparing herself for the serve to come. Just one more point and she would head to the next round. The set had been a little more difficult than the first, the score in games being 5-4. She'd lost a few points she could have easily won if she were allowed to move at full speed but she would listen to her coach. She always was praised for following directions well when she was a child. 

The serve popped off Rybakina’s racket, smacking the back line. Therese had to lunge a little to return the ball so her shot wasn't as precise or strong as she would have liked. She pivoted and moved back to the center, staying on her toes. The ball was sent back deep to the left corner. Therese moved towards it and sliced it back, the ball just barely skimmed the net and landed close to the net. Her opponent sprinted up and returned the ball with some difficulty but stayed up at the net. 

Therese wasn't looking at Rybakina and just assumed she went back to base. Without knowing her opponent was front and center, she sent the ball flying back normally. It was an easy ball to put away, especially at the net. The ball came back hard but fortunately, to Therese’s relief, it soared past her head and out. 

They both stood in stunned silence, the error much too big and unprepared by either of them. Therese looked up towards her box to see Abby smiling down at her and clapping. It was hard to read Carol’s expression, but Therese found herself staring up at her longer, trying to get some sort of emotional read. Eventually Carol gave Therese a small small and clapped three times slowly - mockingly. 

The younger player turned back to the court after she got what she wanted to see Rybakina already at the net and looking towards her funny. Therese apologized and jogged up to the net to shake her opponent's hand before they both went to shake the umpire’s hand. 

She stood in the center of the court as she signed a few balls used during the match and hit them into the stands. Overhead she heard the umpire announcing her as the winner. She put her racket down and waved up at the crowd, loving the sound of their cheers. Her eyes eventually landed on Carol, her expression unchanged from moments before. 

Therese took her last ball and hit it towards her box which Carol caught easily enough. The younger woman couldn't really see from where she was but she imagined the woman’s eyebrow raised. Therese took off her visor and tipped it towards the older woman, before walking off the court to her bench and then out of the stadium entirely. 


	3. Chapter 3

Later that night Abby let Therese have the night off. It was her first time in Russia and with little knowledge of the language, she decided to stay in the hotel. She turned on the TV, hoping for an interesting movie when a knock was heard at her door. She jumped up off the bed and half jogged to the front door, standing on the tips of her toes to look through the abnormally high peep hole. 

Abby stood on the other side of the door, wearing what looked to be evening clothes. Therese leaned her head against the door and sighed. “Go away, Abby, you said I could have the night off!” She whined through the door, Abby’s familiar chuckle sounded from the other side. 

“You do know I have an extra key to your room, don't you? So you can either let me in or I can let myself in. Your choice,” she teased. 

Therese quickly weighed her options and unlocked the door, opening it a crack to look at Abby before her coach pushed the door open further and walked inside. “What are you wearing? Nevermind, it doesn't matter, change your clothes we’re all going out.” She announced.

Therese’s heart plummeted. “All?” she asked hesitantly. All implied more than just the two of them which implied Carol. Did she really want to spend her night off hanging out with her coach and a woman who hated her? No, absolutely not. 

She looked back at the TV and then back to Abby. 

“You can actually legally drink here so how about it? No fake ID needed, doesn't that sound fun?” 

Therese just rolled her eyes at her coach’s joke. She didn't have a match the next day so a night out with some drinks could be nice. And she could just ignore Carol. 

Yeah, right. 

. . . 

If Therese were asked to describe the evening, tense would absolutely be the first word that would come to mind. Abby and Carol drank enough to actually worry Therese for a bit. She herself nursed one beer throughout the whole night. It was one thing to go crazy with your friends and a complete other thing to go crazy with your coach. The very same one she didn't even pay for their sessions or trips. 

Neither attempted to speak to her much which was just fine with Therese. She stayed within her own head, the game from earlier replaying through her mind. 

It had been one of her better matches, but she wondered if it would push her over the edge of the coveted 100 ranking. She'd worked hard the past year to get this close and she wanted to tip over the edge before the season ended. Which meant she had to do it in this tournament. Abby had told her if she made it to the quarter finals then there was a high chance she could break 100, so that's exactly what she was aiming for. 

Therese was snapped out of her thoughts when Carol got up from their table to head to the bathroom. Abby swiveled her chair to face Therese with a mischievous grin on her face. 

“So…” Abby drawled, the tone making Therese want to bolt out of the bar. “What was up with that little display after your match today?” Her coach asked. 

Therese looked back at her in confusion. “What do you mean?” Therese asked. Therese hadn't really thought that much of it, had it been a big deal and she just didn't know?

“Don't play coy with me, dummy! You can't just flirt with my best friend / your middle school crush like that in front of the whole stadium, even the world, and then act like it was no big deal.” 

Therese sat frozen, her mouth wide open. Did everyone think she had been flirting? With Carol? A woman who seemed to hate her very much? Did they think she had a death wish?! 

“That's not what it was at all!” Therese sputtered, waving her hands in front of her. “It was a challenge. You know, because I won. I won that game to prove to her that I'm good! Oh god did it really look that bad? I have a boyfriend...Oh no. Do you think he saw?” Therese sulked, placing her face in her hands.

Abby barked out a laugh, holding onto her sides and the table so she wouldn't fall. “Therese you are too much, your entertainment is payment enough for all the shit you put me through.” Abby’s laughs eventually subsided as Therese just sat in silence. 

“Did Carol think I was flirting?” She hoped beyond hope that the answer was no. “Hold on! You never told her about my crush on her did you?” It hit Therese like a freight train. She had admitted to Abby years ago how she had pined after Carol even though she knew they were best friends. She was young and dumb, though, you couldn't fault her. 

Abby shook her head no and took another swig of her beer. “No, I never told her. I'm not that cruel. Besides the past two weeks, Carol and I haven’t spoken about tennis since she retired five years ago.” Abby mentioned nonchalantly. 

Therese let out a sigh of relief. Well, that eliminated one possibility for why Carol seemed to hate her. 

“Wait, you didn’t answer my first question. Did Carol think I was flirting?” Therese asked apprehensively. 

Abby was about to explain away Therese’s worries when Carol stepped back up to the table, drunkenly trying to shimmy onto the barstool. 

Therese just took a sip of her drink, packing that conversation away for later.

 

**October 17th, 2017**

**Moscow**

 

Therese got to the courts first the next morning. She waited about fifteen minutes before her coach finally arrived, Carol walking in regally behind her. Abby looked like an absolute fright, clearly hungover from the night before. Somehow Carol looked as pristine as always, though Therese was pretty sure Carol had had the most to drink at the bar. 

“Carol’s going to hit with you this morning, unless you want my breakfast to wind up all over the court.”

Therese cringed at the visual, easily agreeing to hit with the older woman. Her eyes found Carol’s before she trailed them slowly down her body, taking in the other woman’s outfit. Carol looked just as amazing in a tennis skirt now as she had five years ago. Today’s ensemble was from Nike, the last company to sponsor her before she retired. The scarlet and black top was sleeveless and looked to be backless, at least from Therese’s frontward perspective, and the skirt was pure black with small ruffles and a red Nike symbol. The whole thing was rounded out with white Nike Air Zooms, the red and black accents matching the top and skirt perfectly. 

Therese looked down at her own outfit, an old t-shirt from highschool and a plain white Adidas skirt. She was still yet to be sponsored so she didn’t get the opportunity to dress as well as a lot of the other women she played against. Abby always reassured her that looks were only the second most important thing on the court. First being actual ability. 

“Are you two going to get started or just keep looking at the shoes I bought Therese for her birthday?” Abby rolled her eyes at the two women in front of her and made her way over to the nearest bench, afraid she’d be sick if she stood any longer. 

Carol and Therese followed after her, dropping their stuff off and beginning to stretch. As they went through their own individual stretches, Therese attempted polite conversation with Carol.

“I’m surprised you’re even able to play this morning,” Therese joked. Carol’s sharp glare had her floundering to explain herself. “Just because you drank so much last night, way more than Abby from what I saw!” The explanation only made the glare worse. 

“Or not…” Therese mumbled to no one in particular. She wrote herself a little mental note to just shut up. 

. . . 

After Therese learned to just shut her mouth, the warm up went smoother than she originally expected. They practiced ground strokes, serves, and even some of Therese’s net play. Abby had been encouraging her lately to get up to the net more, though Therese always felt much more comfortable at the baseline. 

“Why don’t you two play through a set. Carol, you’re on a similar level to whoever Therese plays next round. The match is today and you’re either playing against Gavrilova, who’s the sixth seed for the tournament, or Pliskova. It’s honestly a toss up, Pliskova has been on fire lately. Whichever one wins will make for a tough match for you, kid.”

Abby clapped her hands and sat up, signalling for Therese to really pay attention. Carol seemed to jump to attention as well.

“You’re going to play 4 games against Carol; two full serve rotations. Once that’s done, and I don’t care what the score is, I want you to tell me at least 3 weaknesses in Carol’s gameplay. You can’t beat people who are better than you unless you know their weaknesses. So with Carol’s help, we’re going to get you thinking a little bit more on that court. Got it?”

Therese digested everything that Abby had said the past few minutes. How hard could it be to point out three holes in Carol’s gameplay? She hadn’t played in five years, she was bound to have more than three weak aspects of her game. 

Therese nodded her head in determination, looked towards Carol, and walked off onto the court. Carol followed after her and handed her two bright yellow balls, putting the third up her own skirt. Therese took them, careful to keep their hands from brushing. She looked up at the older woman and gave her a small smile, Carol quirking her eyebrow in response before making her way to the other side of the court. 

Therese set up for her serve while she waited for Carol to set up to receive. Once Carol gave the go-ahead, Therese wound up and tossed the ball in the air. She bent low and jumped up, meeting the ball at its peak before snapping her wrist, the racket head smashing against the ball to send it flying across the court. The ball bounced in the service box a little wide to Carol’s right, forcing her backhand. She returned it cleanly in a vicious straight line, the ball barreling down the line, forcing the younger woman to sprint off to the opposite corner of the court. 

Therese’s backhand return floated to the middle back line, giving Carol plenty of time to set up her forehand. Therese bounced on her toes at the baseline, more than prepared to sprint off to the ball’s next location. 

Carol smacked the ball hard and deep. Therese backed up close to the fence, the bounce sending her back much further than she wanted. She forehand sliced the ball back, the wind carrying it much slower than she had hoped. Carol approached the net quickly and wound up her racket before plowing the ball into Therese’s side of the court. The ball bounced hard and high over Therese’s head and the fence as well. 

One point down, at least 15 more to go. 

. . . 

Therese lost all four games.

Carol had forced her to sprint all over the court for almost every point, most shots alternating between short at the net and long at the baseline. Therese wasn’t able to get the other woman to move as much as she had, but the younger woman was positive she was able to identify three of Carol’s shortcomings. 

Carol sat on the bench next to Abby, clearly out of breath, while Therese stood in front of both of them. 

“Here’s how it’s going to go,” Abby began, “Therese, you’ll name one of Carol’s weaknesses and she’ll name two of yours. Make sure you’re paying attention to what Carol points out; the only way to get better is to recognize your own weaknesses. So the more you name, the more Carol names, the better you’ll get. Got it?”

Both women nodded their heads. Therese racked her brain, trying to decide which to go with first. 

“Hm, I think all the things I noticed are basically one thing.” Therese admitted making Abby smile. “That’s fine, just spread them out into individual ideas.” Her coach explained. Therese nodded again.

“Carol’s stamina is on the lower end. Longer rallies are more in my favor because of this.” Abby and Carol both nodded in agreement, the latter woman’s lips pursed in annoyance. Abby waved her arm towards Carol to signify her turn. 

“You project too much when hitting the ball. It gives me a head start to get into position for your return. You also project in your movement. Anyone in a 20 mile radius can tell where you’re going to run before you even start moving.” Abby nodded her agreement and gestured to Therese. It took the younger woman less thought this time around.

“Your reaction time is rather slow. Shots hit directly at you give you less time to react and get around the ball. I won almost every point in those situations-.” Before Therese could even look to the two other women, Carol was jumping onto her next one.

“Your backhand is atrocious,” Therese glared at the other woman’s bluntness, “and your backhand slice is even worse.” Therese hoped the rest wouldn’t be as cutting.

. . . 

Therese was able to come up with a total of five weaknesses in Carol’s gameplay, with the other woman naming more than 10 just because she felt like it. Each remark from Carol was another crack in her recently growing confidence. After the third unprompted, but otherwise true, scathing remark, Abby put a stop to it - much to Therese’s relief. Therese was starting to feel worthless and Abby actually looked surprised at Carol’s ruthlessness.

“Therese, how about you serve - 25 first serves in a row - and Carol and I will be right back.” Abby said as she steered Carol away from the courts.

Therese let the anger and sadness inside of her push her through 25 quick and easy serves. She had never actually finished them this quickly before so she went to sit on the bench and wait for her coach to return.

Therese went through the four games she had played with Carol and the new knowledge she had about the other woman’s play. She imagined different shots she could have hit, what would have worked better or worse, and what to do next time. 

Eventually Abby came back, but Carol was nowhere to be found, leaving the two of them to continue in peace. 

 

**October 19th, 2017**

**Moscow**

Therese stood opposite Daria Gavrilova as they warmed up for their match. She knew it would be a tough match. The slightly older woman had a few titles under her belt, one this year, as opposed to Therese’s zero titles and she was ranked about 75 places higher. She was injured, though, had been since last tournament, which meant she was slower and more cautious in her movements. Something Therese planned to completely take advantage of. 

Therese and Abby had created a full game plan the day before. Carol hadn’t attended, which was probably for the better. It seemed as though she wasn’t showing up to the match either. Therese wondered if she had gone home early. Not that she really understood why Carol was here to begin with. 

She chanced a glance up into her box to see Abby signing some autographs for a few different fans. That was a normal occurrence at her matches. Abby had only officially retired two years ago, even though she had began coaching Therese since she was fifteen, so she was very much still a household name and often received more attention than Therese herself. The younger woman mostly preferred it that way anyway.

Therese was taken out of her thoughts by the umpire’s whistle to signal the match. She went to her bench and took a quick swig of water. Time to put their plan to practice.

. . .

The first set ended 1-6. 

Daria may have been injured, but she made Therese look like a child out on the court. The difference 75 ranking could make on the court was intense. The only points Therese had won were unforced errors on her opponent’s part. Not a single winner was hit all set, at least for Therese; Gavrilova had hit plenty.

Carol had shown up about halfway through the set, looking not all there. Therese found herself worrying about the other woman during her set, but she had no idea why. It’s not like the other woman would have cared about her. But all Therese could think about were where Carol had been and why she looked so incredibly sad. 

The next set had to be different for Therese or she was going to lose way too early in the tournament. She wanted to get to at least the quarter finals; Losing in the second round was just way too soon. 

Daria was up to serve first in the second set. Therese set up, on her toes and ready to fly. The first serve was rather weak and Therese returned it simply enough into the corner pocket. Daria lunged for it and sent back a sloppy return that sailed over the back line towards the wall; another completely unforced error.

The next few points continued on much the same until Therese was up 1-0 in the second set. As they were switching sides, Daria Gavrilova started talking to the umpire. Therese tried hard to listen but didn’t want to seem as though she were eavesdropping. She went back to her gatorade and took a big swig right before the umpire made his announcement. 

“Gavrilova will be forfeiting the match due to injury. Belivet has won the match by forfeit.”

Therese spit her gatorade all over the court in shock. Her eyes scanned everyone quickly - first the umpire to make sure she heard him correctly, then her opponent who was clearly in a great deal of pain, and finally Abby and Carol. The final two looked just as shocked as she did. 

After a beat she jumped up and made her way over to the umpire’s chair, quickly shaking Gavrilova’s and the umpire’s hands before making her way back to her bench to pack up quickly. 

She felt jittery and confused, but mostly she felt guilty. She didn’t deserve this win. At all. She had lost terribly the first set and she probably wouldn’t have done much better if the second set had continued all the way through. 

She made her way off the court in a daze.


	4. Chapter 4

**October 18th, 2017**

**Moscow**

 

Carol had told herself to book the next flight out and to just go back home. And she had planned to, she really had. But instead she found herself back in her hotel room bathroom sitting in a lukewarm bath, her knees up to her chest.

 

_ Carol knew she was in trouble as Abby led her off the court; A private conversation couldn’t mean anything good. Carol was ready for an argument, though, she’d been itching for a good fight for the past few days. Abby’s demeanor was difficult to read due to the hangover, but her best friend almost seemed sad.  _

_ Abby sighed, running her hand along her face. _

_ “Carol, you know you’re my best friend, right? And you know how much I love you?” _

_ Carol regarded her friend curiously, but responded nonetheless. _

_ “Of course, I do.” She replied. Abby stepped forward, taking one of Carol’s hands in her own and squeezed it lightly.  _

_ “Good, because I do - love you that is. Which is why this is so hard for me.”  _

_ Now Carol was really confused. She had no idea what her friend was getting at, but she knew she wouldn’t like it. _

_ “I had hoped that bringing you in the gym and then here to the tournament would help Therese. You were her idol growing up, you know? When she first started training with me you were all she ever talked about,” Abby chuckled at the memory. “She would ask me questions about you constantly. I had to make it into a game just to get anything done - ‘Each point you win against me wins you one fact about Carol’. She ate it up! And she tried so hard just to find out you wore a size 9 shoe or that your favorite color was green even though you always wore red.” _

_ Abby paused, seeming to be lost in the memory. Carol tried to picture a young Therese, though the girl was still quite young now. How did sixteen year old Therese act, she wondered.  _

_ “I care for you a great deal, but I care about that young girl out there on the court a hell of a lot as well. She doesn’t have anyone, no family to guide her, so I can’t stand by and not be that person for her.” _

_ “Is that why you do all of this? Some sort of obligation?” Carol asked before Abby could continue. Of course she had wondered why her friend was training and traveling with Therese all for free. She honestly believed her friend to be insane. _

_ “Of course not, have you been listening to me! That girl is special - special to me and special to this world. I’m going to do anything to see her reach her full potential. Do you understand? Because this is incredibly hard for me.” _

_ No, Carol didn’t understand at all. It sort of sounded like Abby was breaking up with her, which in this context made no sense at all. Abby groaned at the confusion written all over Carol’s face. _

_ “I had hoped you being here would help her; clearly I was wrong. You’re just bringing her down and being pretty cruel too. She’s young, Carol! I know he ruined the sport for you, but it’s not fair to do that to Therese. I won’t let you. She has nothing to do with this and you know it. You just can’t stand to see a younger player enjoying the sport and doing well! She’s the same age you were when you started dating Harge, isn’t she?” _

_ Carol’s world felt like it was crashing down. Thoughts circled through her head much too quickly as she tried to grasp at some sort of reply. How dare Abby imply that she was jealous of Therese. Or bring up her ex-husband. But the thing that upset her the most, was that Abby was choosing Therese over her. It was clear in the woman’s tone.  _

_ Carol opened her mouth to reply - to yell and scream at her friend - but nothing came out. She felt her eyes well up, the tears falling down before she had the chance to wipe them away. Abby at least had the decency to look guilty. _

_ The older woman stepped closer, ready to console her friend. But Carol didn’t want to be consoled. She was angry; at her friend, at Therese, but mainly at the world.  _

_ The first step back was hesitant. The second was more determined, putting more distance between the two of them. The third turned into the fourth and Carol was pivoting, her feet carrying her off away from the courts, away from Abby, and away from Therese’s sad eyes. _

 

Why had she even come here? Of course, Abby had invited her and at the time it seemed like a wonderful idea. It was a great chance to see the other WTA players before the season ended since she hadn’t exactly kept up with the tournaments or anything. 

But why did Abby want her there? 

Even if her friend had wanted her to help make Therese better, a tournament isn’t exactly the best place to do it. Abby had mentioned that she wanted Carol to see the younger woman play in a more serious setting, but why? It didn’t really matter to Carol. Therese wasn’t even a little bit of competition for her. She was just young and easily moldable. The girl was quick to please and quite capable of following directions, something Carol appreciated in a younger player. She’d make for a good doubles partner that was for sure.

Carol submerged herself in the cold bath water, holding herself under for as long as she could before breathing became a necessity. She popped back up and took a few big gulps of air. 

She knew exactly why she was here and she was going to kill Abby.

 

**October 19th, 2017**

**Moscow**

 

“I’ll do it.”

Carol plopped down in the seat next to Abby in Therese’s box.

“What are you on about?” Abby asked in an exasperated tone. She turned to face Carol, lifting her sunglasses on top of her head, giving Carol her best glare.

Ok, so apparently she was still angry about yesterday.

“I said I’ll do it - I’ll play doubles with Therese. You said at her last match that you found the perfect partner for her and it’s me, I’ll do it.”

At the look Abby was giving her, Carol almost thought she misinterpreted the whole thing. Was she actually just making a fool of herself? Abby’s answering smile proved that thought wrong.

“You know you’ll have to be nice to her if you’re going to be partners, right?” Her friend asked with a laugh much louder than appropriate for the setting. 

“One thing at a time.” Carol replied, laughing along with Abby. 

A silence followed, both friends retreating into their heads. They had plenty of time to discuss this further, but now was about Therese. Decision made and her friend now happy with her again, Carol turned her attention to Therese’s match.

The first set had been about halfway over by the time Carol had finally shown up. She spent the whole morning pacing and cursing, trying to decide how she would talk to Abby about playing with Therese, that she had realized much too late she needed to head to the stadium. 

Therese was down pretty badly in the set. She had feared this would be the case. The younger player was good, but this was an incredibly difficult match up. 

Abby informed her that Therese had won the first game with her serve and hadn’t won another since. They weren’t even close either, not a single deuce was played through. Carol’s own philosophy was that first sets didn’t matter at all, but this one was pretty telling. If only she could talk to the girl in between sets and tell her how to play against her opponent. Carol had only been sitting for one game so far and she already noticed three flaws in Gavrilova’s playing. The girl was clearly injured and Therese wasn’t pushing that at all. She was either too nice or too dumb. Carol assumed it was probably a mix of both.

. . . 

The second set had ended almost as quickly as it had started. Win by forfeit never felt good, Carol and Abby both knew the feeling well, but Therese just looked so utterly defeated. She actually wanted to hug the younger woman.

“We should go talk to her before she beats herself up too much over this.” Abby said as she stood up. Therese had just left the stadium looking completely frazzled so Carol nodded in agreement and followed after her friend.

It took them awhile to actually get out of the stadium, though, as many fans stopped them for pictures and autographs. Carol wasn’t really used to it yet. At one point she’d been great at the photo-ops, she could do her signature in her sleep, but after five years off you would think she forgot how to write her own name. Each ball and paper she signed looked different than the one before, each picture showing a different smile. 

Abby was a natural; she lived for this attention. She laughed with the men and flirted with the women as she signed and took pictures. The ones where they were together were better, Abby’s excitement always had been contagious. 

Carol wondered if she were really ready to be back in the spotlight like this. Obviously people didn’t care about doubles as much as they did singles, which made Abby’s idea an even better one after all this attention.

“Alright, ladies, I need to get to my kid now, but it was lovely talking to all of you.” 

Carol rolled her eyes as Abby winked at the women she was talking to, rolling them even harder as the women ‘awed’ when Abby called Therese her kid. Her friend was absolutely a gay disaster.

. . . 

If Carol were a nicer person, she probably would have tried to console Therese or make her feel better. 

“You look absolutely terrible,” is what Therese got from the older woman instead, a swift elbow from Abby was launched into Carol’s side in return. 

Therese looked up at the two of them and gave Carol a watery smile to both women’s surprise. The look from the younger woman was like a punch in the gut for Carol. She just looked so incredibly broken. Therese let out a broken chuckle.

“Why does it feel like this?” Therese paused to wipe at her eyes, the tears falling freely now. Carol took in a choked gulp of air at the sight of the broken girl. Abby began taking cautious steps towards Therese, as if she were a wounded animal ready to bolt at any second. Maybe she was.

“I should be happy shouldn’t I? This is a lucky break and I should be happy but it just hurts. Why does it hurt?” Therese finished with a hiccup, the tears now streaming down her face. Abby quickly wrapped Therese up in her arms while the younger woman sobbed into her shoulder, holding her coach just as tight. 

Tears sprang to Carol’s eyes immediately. She could only imagine the thoughts running through Therese’s head. Her first forfeit in a big tournament, a match she otherwise should have lost. Any player would feel undeserving and Carol knew exactly how she felt in this moment. 

She still remembered her first win by forfeit vividly. She had been only 17 and it was in Wimbledon, a court she never excelled at anyway. She had been getting her ass kicked and it was embarrassing. The match-up wasn’t even a difficult one like Therese’s had been today. She should have won regardless, but instead she won because her opponent was injured. It had hurt and she felt an intense amount of anger, mainly at herself.

It seemed as though Therese was just feeling guilt over the win, no anger. 

Before she could really think about her actions, Carol’s feet were moving towards the duo. She hesitantly stepped up to the group, not exactly sure what to do with herself. Abby’s arm shot out and grabbed hers, pulling her into the hug, forcing Carol to wrap her arms around both women. Therese squirmed a little, freeing her left arm to wrap it around Carol’s body. Her head remained in Abby’s shoulder, though, even after her cries had subsided minutes later. 

The three just remained standing there, other players and coaches walking by here and there. Some threw curious looks their way, but most just minded their business, not that the three really cared. They were more than happy to just stay in their little cocoon. 

 

**October 20th, 2017**

**Moscow**

 

A full 24 hours later and Abby and Carol found themselves back in the hard blue seats at the Olympic Stadium watching Therese play another match. For the quarter-finals, Therese was playing against Irina-Camelia Begu, a Romanian player a little younger than Carol. If Therese played like she did on her first day, then Abby and Carol knew this would be a good match. 

The younger player seemed to be in higher spirits today. After Therese had calmed down enough, the three of them had went back to the hotel and spent the night in, discussing strategy and offering advice. Carol had been shocked how easy it had been to tell Therese tennis stories from years ago. The past few years even the mention of tennis or her life before Harge threw her into a deep spiral. But there was something about Therese that made her want to teach and guide. No wonder Abby had been doing so for the past few years. It was probably the girl’s enthusiasm and raw determination. It shone through her with everything she did, absorbing the advice from the two older women last night just being another example. 

Carol straightened up as the umpire announced the beginning of the match. She actually felt quite nervous for the young girl. It was almost like she was seeing Therese in a new light after yesterday’s episode. It truly showed how young and vulnerable Therese actually was, a youth that should be protected and celebrated, not beaten down. 

Therese was awarded first service, Abby squeezing Carol’s knee in excitement. They both knew that was a good sign.

. . . 

The match was just as close as Carol and Abby thought (hoped) it would be. They were rounding out the first set with a score of 5-4, in Therese’s favor. They went back and forth for the whole set, neither able to break the other, but if Therese were able to break her opponent now, the set would be hers. 

The rallies of the 10th game were long and hard fought, neither player allowing any unforced errors to appear on the court. Therese was hitting relatively safe shots, both older women could tell, but she was returning the shots Begu had hoped to be winners, which was just as well. A safe game could still be a good game, not that Carol ever played that way, but Abby often did so it made sense that her pupil would as well. 

At set point, Carol and Abby’s hands found each other’s in a vice like grip, both too anxious and hopeful for the end of the set. 

Begu faulted her first serve, relieving some of the tension in Abby’s grip. The second serve bounced in with a decently reduced speed, giving Therese the time to line up a good shot. The rally went back and forth for six shots before Begu sent a drop shot back right after a majorly deep shot before. The Romanian thought she had hit a winner, but Therese was off to the net, sprinting at the fastest speed she could. 

Carol’s mind flashed back to a few days prior on the practice court, the speed Therese displayed that day had been amazing and this was no different. The young woman crouched low, preparing herself to get to the ball right before it dropped. It looked hopeless, but Carol had hope. 

Carol cupped her mouth as the next few seconds seemed to slow down. Therese’s stance looked familiar, she knew exactly what the girl was about to do, desperate to win the point. But this was a hard court, it would be stupid and foolish. 

“You idiot.” Abby whispered to herself when she realized Therese’s plan. Carol leaned forward as Abby leaned back, both intrigued yet horrified at the sacrifice the young woman was about to make. 

Gasps could be heard all around the stadium as Therese dove head first for the ball, her racket barely making contact. She rolled as ungracefully as she had the day before, but everyone’s eyes were on the ball as it rolled over the net, bouncing on the opposite side. 

The crowd erupted in cheers, Abby jumping up and down along with the crowd. Carol found herself too shocked to move, her eyes unable to look away from Therese’s dumb grin as she sat on the court and listened to the crowd cheer, all while holding her scraped up knee. When their eyes met, Carol smiled back. In that moment she knew for a fact that Therese was the only partner she would want to have for the 2018 season. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to include a little note about tennis here! Sometimes I forget that not everyone reading has been playing tennis for almost 20 years so I figured maybe I should put a simple explanation? Well here it is:
> 
> Tennis matches are divided into sets, sets are divided into games, and games are divided into points. In most tournaments, a match is won by best 2 out of 3 sets (bigger tournaments is 3 out of 5), a set is won when a player reaches 6 games (win by 2), and a game is won when a player reaches 4 points (win by 2). In a game, the points aren't 0, 1, 2, and 3, though. That would be too easy. They are Love, 15, 30, and 40.
> 
> As we continue moving forward and finally get to 2018, we will be a seeing a lot more match play so I'll keep offering little explanations like this as we go (if everyone wants!). If anyone ever has any questions, you can always comment or PM me!


	5. Chapter 5

**October 30th, 2017**

**New York**

 

_ Thwack. _

 

The building was eerily quiet, the only sounds reverberating off the cement walls were the soft hum of a machine, the  _ pop _ of the tennis ball smacking off the racket and the soft bounce of the ball smoothing over clay.

Therese looked over towards the last court in the building, the sole object of her thoughts only 200 feet away, driving her feet to keep her moving forward towards the other player. 

Carol looked magnificent, as always, and Therese couldn’t seem to look away from this version of the woman. Of course she’d seen Carol in a tennis outfit before, but she always looked so put together - so  _ perfect _ . Today, Carol looked anything but perfect, but for some reason Therese felt her palms sweat and her heart race. Carol’s whole body glistened with sweat, letting the younger woman know she had been here practicing for a while, her hair was coming loose from the band meant to keep it back and off her face, leaving strands of hair sticking to her sweaty brow and cheeks. 

With each hit of the tennis ball, Therese found herself moving closer to the older woman. With only one court between them now, Therese could hear Carol’s ragged breathing and small grunts as she attacked the ball with all her strength. 

The sounds brought a flush to Therese’s cheeks, her feet becoming lead. 

Hours seemed to go by as Therese watched Carol hit ball after ball, the younger woman finding it harder to catch her breath with each stroke of the racket. 

The machine sputtered, spitting out the final ball, Therese stood with bated breath, unable to breath as Carol wound up her forehand and smacked the ball as hard as she could back at the machine; it rattled at the impact, but the noise still couldn’t draw Therese’s eyes away from the woman in front of her. 

Silence enveloped the both of them, neither ready to move or speak. Finally, Carol turned towards Therese, knocking the little breath she had even further out of her. How could a woman who had just spent the morning working out manage to look so beautiful. 

Therese was shocked at her desire to kneel before Carol right there on the clay in the hopes that some of her beauty and tennis ability could be bestowed upon her. She would pray at the shrine of Carol every day if that’s what it took. 

“Aren’t you off this week?” Carol’s sharp and husky voice echoed in the otherwise empty gym. Therese shakes herself from her previous thoughts, looking into the other woman’s eyes. 

The question seemed genuine with only a small hint of aggravation. If the same question had been asked before Kremlin, Therese could only imagine how bitter and harsh the words would have been.

Had their relationship really changed that much in such a short time?

It had only been ten days since Therese lost in the quarterfinals, though the monotony of everyday life without training had made the days seem like weeks. She couldn’t take the boredom anymore, hence why she found herself at the gym this morning. 

Richard had been delighted to hear Therese was off for two whole weeks after she got back from her last tournament. He insisted they spend almost every moment together, droning on and on about how much he missed her and how he spent his days while she was away. Any attempt at conversation from Therese’s end was cut off with words of Richard’s feelings and other things Therese found she didn’t really care for all that much. 

She found out the day before he hadn’t even watched her play. The best tournament standings of her life and her boyfriend didn’t even care enough to watch. 

When Therese had received the news that her ranking had finally broken 100, she couldn’t wait to talk about it. Phil and Dannie had been support enough, they always were. But Richard just didn’t seem to get how big of a deal it had been. Therese had felt empty that night, empty and alone. She had laid in her bed by herself that night, staring at the ceiling and hoping for the feelings of emptiness to leave her. And like an answer from some god, her phone had buzzed. Assuming it was just Richard, she took her time grabbing it off the nightstand, but the message staring back at her instantly brought her to tears. In retrospect, the message wasn’t really that special. Coming from anyone else, Therese wouldn’t have even cared all too much. But the truth was, the message staring back at her from Carol meant more to her than anything else she had heard that day. She rolled over with a smile, now ready to end the day and feeling whole enough to sleep, the words from Carol’s message running through her brain as if she were counting sheep.

 

_ Congratulations on rank 98. You deserve it. _

 

Therese was brought out of her thoughts as she felt a hand fall down on her shoulder. She shook her head subtly and looked up at Carol’s face, concern written all over it.

“Are you alright, Therese? I asked you a question and then you completely zoned out.” Carol asked.

The concern in her voice and the closeness of their faces brought a blush to Therese’s cheeks. She stumbled backwards out of Carol’s grasp, not used to being so close to the other woman or for her to speak with such kindness. 

“I’m fine, um, what was your question again?” Therese stuttered out. She hoped by putting distance between them that she would gain control back, but it seemed it didn’t matter where she stood or looked. All she could think about was Carol’s hand on her shoulder, her face so close, and the short message she had received days before. 

“Aren’t you still off this week?” Carol asked again, her mask back in place.  Therese nodded her head in response. “Yeah, Abby said I didn’t have to come back until next week and even then we wouldn’t be training as much as before. I just found myself bored and hoped to maybe get some serves in. I can just use the court over there, though, I don’t want to disturb you.” Therese pointed at the courts towards the front of the gym, far away from the one they were currently standing on. 

Carol seemed to think for a bit, of what Therese had no clue, but it seemed she finally came to a decision as she turned around. 

“Help me pick up these balls and I’ll help you practice your serve.”

It sounded like a request, something Therese would have a choice over, but the younger woman knew that passing up an opportunity like this would be insane. Carol didn’t make offers like this, and the chance to practice serves with the older woman was a dream come true.

Therese sprinted into action, grabbing a hopper and setting to work on retrieving the loose balls. It seemed as though Carol had hit close to 200 balls, all of them littered in the back corners of the court. Of the 200 or so only less than 10 seemed to have hit the net. Therese was impressed as always. To hit with such precision after taking such a long time off was nothing short of amazing.

. . . 

They had been serving for close to half an hour before Carol started offering up advice, which Therese drank in greedily.  Therese took each word of suggestion and critique and applied it to every single future serve, continuing to tweak her movements each time Carol offered more. 

“If you tossed the ball just maybe 2 inches to the right, you’d have the curve you’re looking for on that second serve.” Carol offered to which Therese nodded, focused on getting it just right. 

Two more serves went much like the ones before them, flat beyond belief. Carol actually chuckled at her. Before Therese could get angry, the older woman approached with her right hand out. 

“May I?” She asked. Therese didn’t know what she was asking for, but she knew she would give the woman anything she wanted so she found herself nodding her head without any clue as to what she was signing herself up for.    
Carol nodded back and continued walking closer, eventually stopping very much in Therese’s personal space, causing the younger woman to hold her breath. Carol grasped Therese’s right wrist with her right hand and placed her left hand on the younger woman’s waist.

“It’s just easier if I show you, right Therese?”

And just like that Therese felt her knees buckle as the husky voice sounded behind her. Therese tried to hear over the pounding in her ears, but the bloodrush combined with the feeling of Carol’s breaths on the back of her neck almost caused her to pass out.

Carol moved her right arm, bringing Therese’s up with her as well, and Therese just let her. Her body felt like a puppet, completely under Carol’s control, all sense of ownership over her own body completely gone. 

“Now when you wind up, angle your wrist like so,” Carol adjusted Therese’s wrist for her, “and as you swing, exaggerate your slice stroke on the ball.” Step by step Carol showed Therese how to approach the serve with her body. She tried hard to keep all the information in her mind, but with their bodies so close together, all the younger woman could do was panic. 

“And lastly, turn your body to the left even more than you normally would. This is an exaggerated serve so make sure your body reflects that or the serve won’t work.” Carol instructed as she turned Therese’s body for her, finishing the swing. She kept them in that position, even closer than they were before. Therese could feel Carol’s breasts pressed up against her shoulder blades, causing her to shudder.

Carol patted Therese’s side a few times with her left hand and stood back up, backing away from the younger woman. Therese could have sworn she heard the older woman’s ragged breathing behind her, but it could have just been her own. She wasn’t too sure at this point what was up or what was down.

“Go ahead and try for yourself.” Carol suggested after a beat. 

Therese shook herself out, wiggling her arms and legs before setting herself at the service line. Carol handed her a ball, Therese careful to keep their fingers from touching. She needed to focus, and her body’s silly reactions to Carol that day were not helping. 

She wound up just as Carol had shown her, wrist adjusted, leg back, and shoulders turned. She tossed the ball and bent low, waiting for it to reach its highest peak before pushing up and off her feet. As her racket approached the ball, she rotated her wrist to the right, just as Carol had shown, and aggressively brushed the strings of her racket against the ball before snapping her wrist hard and finishing with her body turned to the left. 

She kept her head down through the serve, a tip Abby had provided years ago that seemed to work well for her, so she missed the end result of her serve. She quickly turned to Carol, hoping beyond hope that she had done the serve correctly. All she wanted in that moment was for Carol to be proud of her again. Just like when she had sent that late night congratulatory message. Just like at Kremlin when she sprinted dove for that ball. She craved it.

But Carol’s face was blank, just like it always was. Therese was immediately crushed. The desire to gather Carol’s approval had been so strong inside her that to not have it was almost physically painful. She approached the cart, and subsequently Carol, to grab another ball.

“I’ll get it this time I promise.” Therese stated as she reached into the cart. Before she could wrap her fingers around a ball, Carol’s hand closed tightly around her wrist. Therese looked up at the other woman in shock, but her mouth dropped open at Carol’s next words.

“Play doubles with me next year.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now things finally get rolling!! I'm just way too excited to write them as doubles partners lol we'll have plenty more gay moments from here on out because that's just how doubles is...it's just extremely gay.


	6. Chapter 6

**October 30th, 2017**

**New York**

 

Therese and Richard were sitting up at the bar, both slowly sipping the beers they had in front of them. Richard was droning on about his day. They both turned as they heard Dannie and Phil arguing behind them. 

They each kissed Therese on the cheek and jokingly did the same with Richard before sitting down with them. Before even ordering a drink, Dannie turned towards Therese.

“Alright, Therese, the gang’s all here and we’re dying to hear the good news! Please don't make us wait any longer, I don't know if my heart could take it.” Dannie joked, clutching his chest over his heart.

Therese had texted their group chat quickly after leaving the gym earlier that day, begging them to meet for drinks at their favorite bar. The boys has readily agreed.

Therese placed her beer down on the counter, a huge smile on her face. 

“I'm playing doubles with Carol!” Therese announced to her friends and boyfriend. 

Dannie looked excited, much like he always did, and Phil looked confused. Richard’s facial expression was much harder to read, though. 

“I thought she was a bitch?” Richard asked.

Therese faltered a bit at his words, Dannie taking over for her.

“She’s been much nicer lately, right, Terry?” He responded innocently. Now all eyes were on Therese. Dannie decided to take Therese’s silence as a signal to continue. 

“For weeks you've been going on and on about how nice she was at the tournament and how she even comforted you that one time. If I didn't know any better, I’d think your crush was coming back!” Dannie joked. 

Now Richard looked angry. “Why didn't you tell me, your boyfriend, any of this?” He asked incredulously. 

“Oops.” Dannie muttered next to them, turning to his brother to give the couple some semblance of privacy.

Therese sighed, trying not to get angry at the hurt look on Richard’s face. 

“Just drop it, Richard, now’s not the time.”

“When is the time, Terry? I hardly see you anymore, you're constantly practicing or at tournaments. It’s like you have no time for me, for  _ us _ , anymore!” His voice began to raise, Therese’s following suit.

“You knew that this was my dream. You knew from the very beginning that this was the life I was training for; the life I’ve wanted for years!”

“Yeah, well, I never actually thought you'd even get this far.” 

The bar seemed to hush at Richard’s admission. Tears sprang to her eyes, his words like a punch to the gut. 

“You didn’t believe in me,” Therese muttered. Richard sputtered excuses and apologies, but the sound of Therese’s phone beeping drew both of their eyes to the countertop. It was a text from Carol. 

Richard looked ready to speak again, but Therese cut him off, standing. 

“I’ll see you guys later.” She announced, kissing Dannie’s and Phil’s cheeks. 

“Terry, c'mon, don’t go. We need to talk about this.” 

“We’ll talk later, Richard.” And with that she quickly made her way through the bar towards the exit.

. . .

Therese walked through the empty New York streets, the cold Autumn wind rushing past her and stinging her tear stained cheeks. 

She had always known deep down that Richard hadn’t cared all too much for tennis or her career in the sport, he’d always made that quite obvious. What kind of boyfriend didn’t watch their girlfriend when she was on tv anyway? If the roles were reversed she would obviously support him fully.

Her phone began to ring and without much thinking she answered it in her blind rage.

“I said we’d talk later.” Therese bit out.

Instead of the whiny tone of her boyfriend, a soft laugh responded. 

“Well, hello to you too, kid. Have you missed me as much as I've missed you?” Abby joked.

Therese sighed in relief at hearing her coach’s voice instead of Richard’s. 

“Sorry, Abby, I thought you were someone else.” 

Abby paused long enough for Therese to wonder if she’d heard her.

“Carol?” She finally questioned.

Therese stopped walking down the street in confusion.

“Why Carol?” 

She wouldn't have snapped at the older woman like that. They'd been getting along so well lately. 

“Carol told me that she finally asked you about doubles this morning and you just ran out.” 

A silence settled between them before Abby bust out into a loud laugh. 

Therese was mortified. She thought she had answered Carol, but instead she really had just run out of the building in excitement. 

“Oh my god.” Therese muttered, making Abby laugh even harder. 

“Maybe you should text her back. Because she’s been bothering me about it since this morning and I don't have enough patience for the sheer ridiculousness of this scenario.”

Therese nodded her head, forgetting Abby couldn't see her.  

“Anyway, that's not even why I called. Why were you at the gym this morning when I specifically told you to take two whole weeks off?”

“Sorry, Coach,” Therese responded, “I was just so...bored!” 

Therese’s response brought out another laugh from Abby.

“Well, if you're going to just blatantly disobey me anyway, we might as well get you two started on doubles play.” 

Therese picked up the pace, almost home. “That sounds great, I'm excited to learn some doubles."

Abby groaned on the other end. “I knew not teaching you doubles years ago would bite me in the ass. We have a lot of work to do.” 

Therese answered back in confusion. “How different could it be?” 

“Oh, boy. 9am, see you tomorrow, Nitwit.”

And with that Abby hung up. 

. . . 

**October 31st, 2017**

**New York**

 

Therese walked into the gym half an hour late with Starbucks in hand. She had wound up staying up much later than she should have trying to patch things up with Richard. He had called close to midnight trying to have the talk they desperately needed to have. They stayed on the phone together for hours, most of that time for Therese was just listening to Richard drone on about how his feelings were hurt and how she never made time for him. Therese hadn’t been in the mood to talk and she hadn’t been in the mood to argue either, so she went along with it until they finally bid their goodnights.

And now she was late.

As soon as the doors opened, Abby was reprimanding her, just as Therese had expected.

“I know, I know, I’m sorry! But, look what I brought!” She singsonged as she handed Abby the coffee cup.

Abby quickly brought the coffee close to her face, taking in the rich aroma. “Mmm, Pumpkin Spice. You’re forgiven.”

Therese stepped past her coach and made her way towards the benches where Carol was waiting. 

Carol’s outfit was mismatched that morning; her top was from the 2010 Nike Spring line, the skirt was just plain black but Therese knew it wasn’t from that same year because Nike was doing pastels that season, and the whole outfit was completed with the same Air Zooms she had been wearing every time they played. 

It’s not that Therese particularly enjoyed fashion and all that it entailed, but it was hard to not pay attention when it came to tennis. Fashion might as well have been a points category in matches. And Carol had looked great in anything that her sponsors had put her in, her body was always perfect for the form fitting, sleeveless tops and the short skirts. 

“Nice of you to show up.”

Carol’s rude tone was back and Therese hoped beyond hope she could rectify this. She wondered for a second why she cared more about Carol being upset with her than her own boyfriend, but decided to save that internal debate for another day.

“Carol, I am so so sorry about yesterday. It’s embarrassing, but I was just so excited to tell my friends we’d be playing together that I forgot to even tell  _ you _ .” She explained sheepishly. She could feel her face getting hot, looking away to avoid further embarrassment. 

Carol sighed in what sounded like frustration, but Therese thought she saw a hint of a smile.

. . . 

The warm up was going well so far, both were hitting solid strokes and moving well. After an hour of warming up, Abby called them over to actually get started. 

“Alright, kids, let's talk formation.” Abby announced.

“I'll be playing ad court.” Carol was quick to jump in. 

Carol had a wicked forehand so Therese was surprised she wanted to play on the left side of the court, more often forcing her backhand. “No way. Therese is playing ad, don't be stupid.” Abby quickly shot down. 

Carol wasn't giving up, though. “The more reliable player should play ad.” Carol argued, looking at Abby as if she were insane. 

“Don’t you trust me?” Therese jumped in, slightly hurt.

“Not at all.” Carol replied without even looking her way. Therese pouted and left the two to fight it out.

“You can’t think of doubles as most reliable player, but as most reliable combination. You at the net with Therese at the baseline is going to be a powerful combination.” Abby explained. 

It made sense to Therese, not that she knew much about doubles. 

“Let's just try it, okay?” Abby pushed and Carol relented. 

Abby left Carol and Therese to themselves as she went to grab two other players to hit with them. They were all technically her players so no one could really argue. 

“What are your 3 most used serves? In order.” Carol requested. 

Therese didn't even have to ponder long. “Slice to the left side, flat to the right, and middle kick.” She replied. 

Carol nodded and thought for a bit. “How big is the kick?” She asked. 

“I can show you?” Therese offered, more as a question than anything else, not too sure what Carol wanted. That seemed to be the correct response, though, as Carol nodded and grabbed a few balls.

“Show me all three, actually. In order.” The older woman ordered, holding out a ball for Therese.

Therese took the ball and made her way to the center of the service line.

“Not there.” Carol chastised.

Therese turned towards her in confusion. “This is where I always serve from.” She explained. 

Carol tsked and pointed towards the alley. “You serve out wide in doubles, at least for now. We’ll work on more complicated things later.” After some thought Carol continued. “Have you actually never played doubles?” She asked amazed. 

“Nope.” Therese replied, popping the ‘p’. “It’s always just been me and Abby.” She explained. 

Carol didn't reply but she gestured towards the court so Therese got the hint and set up to serve. 

She changed her grip on the racquet, loosening her fingers and feeling the hilt in her palm. She tossed the ball up high, bent her knees down low and attacked straight up, sliding the face of the racquet against the ball before sharply snapping her wrist. The ball twisted in air, hooking left, before it bounced into the back left pocket of the service box. 

“Now flat.” Carol instructed, no other words whether praise or reprimand about the subject. 

Therese set up again, tightening her grip on the racquet this time. She tossed the ball much lower, her knees bent not as low as the last time either, before she exploded forwarded. She jumped straight into the court, the racquet strings smacking the ball head on. The ball bounced into the back right corner before smacking into the wall behind the court. 

“Last one.” Carol announced as she bounced another ball to Therese. 

Therese moved her hand down on the grip and loosened her hold again, feeling the hilt in the palm of her hand. She tossed the ball somewhere between the heights of the last two serves and let the racquet dangle in an extremely loose grip. 

She dropped low again, bending her back at an uncomfortable angle, before snapping straight up. Her arm came around the ball in an arc, the strings brushing against the ball sideways, creating a harsh side spin. 

The ball bounced in the middle of the box, close to the middle line, before kicking up high and to the left. 

“How was that?” Therese asked as she turned towards Carol, who had already walked away to get her racquet. Therese sighed. Looks like they were back at square one.

Before thoughts of Carol pretending to be nice just so Therese would agree to play doubles could surface, Abby came back with two other players. 

Abby had brought over Claire and Susan, two players just a bit younger than Carol. They were currently ranked in the top 50 for doubles so they were definitely good players. For the most part they ride solo in tournaments, though they pay Abby for the use of space and equipment. Therese was actually the only person that ever used the gym that Abby actually coached and she was also the only one who never had to pay anything. That often pissed people off. 

The three older women exchanged pleasantries and introductions, though none were really needed for Carol, and then it was time to play.

Abby tossed a coin and it was decided that Therese would serve first. She stepped up to the service line and took a breath in. She looked over at Carol to see her holding up three fingers behind her back. Was that supposed to mean something? She must have been taking too long because Abby urged her to hurry up. Putting the gesture aside, Therese decided for a slice serve.

She wound up slowly and smacked the ball towards the corner of the box. Susan returned it easily and sent her out wide to the right. Therese easily got the ball and wound up to strike right down the line. She pushed the ball forward in a straight line which was smacked back hard and right in between them by Claire almost instantly. 0-15.

Carol turned towards Therese in anger. “That’s not the serve I told you to do. The first rule of doubles is to listen to your partner,” her voice low and angry. Realization dawned on Therese.

“Is that what that hand signal meant?” She asked a dumbfounded Carol.

“Yes! What else would it mean? The signals are one, two, and three fingers for your first, second, and third serves. Remember the order of serves you literally just told me?”

“Oh, okay, that makes sens-” Therese was cut off before she could finish her sentence.

“And make sure you look up when you’re playing. If your opponent sends you out wide then the net player will without a doubt cover the baseline. Your only options are another wide shot or an overhead. Got it?” Carol explained.

Therese nodded her understanding and went back to the baseline to serve again. This time she anticipated Carol’s hand and nodded to herself at the sight of two fingers. Therese changed her grip and flat served the ball deep into the right pocket, forcing Claire to lunge out for the ball. The return passed Carol, going much too high for her to reach. Therese sprinted over and thought through her next shot. If she hit the ball wide and to the left, then Susan would be right there at the net. But if she went straight, then Claire would be at the baseline. Down the middle had to be the best option. 

Keeping her eyes on the ball, Therese powered through a flat forehand hard and down the middle. 

“Fuck!” Carol shouted, holding onto her shoulder, Therese frozen in shock as the ball bounced back towards her. 

“Shit, Carol, I’m so sorry.” Therese apologized as she rushed over to Carol, while Susan and Claire laughed to each other on the other side of the net. 

Carol brushed off her apologies, rotating her shoulder to work through some of the pain. “Why am I not surprised that out of 13 different shots you could have taken, you hit the exact one that would hit me?” Carol chuckled, though the laugh was devoid of any actual humor. “Tell me to duck next time.” And with that Carol got back into position.

. . . 

The match continued much like the first two points: Therese would mess up, Carol would get mad, Susan and Claire would laugh. At the very end of their set, they lost 2-6 only winning on Carol’s serve, Abby had to actually apologize to the other doubles pair and promise them that the gym use for the day was free since they did her a favor. That’s how little they actually got out of the set. 

Therese sprawled out on the bench, her arm covering her eyes as she tried to keep her tears at bay. 

“That was just about how I expected today to go.” Abby joked, though neither player found it particularly funny. “Carol, you gotta give Therese a break here. I’m sure she’s told you she’s never played doubles before and then on top of that you terrify her.” Therese nodded as best she could from her position on the bench. “And, Therese, we just have a lot to work on with you, but I know you’re going to take all these lessons and keep practicing. You’re a go-getter, it’s what I’ve always loved about, kid.” 

Therese sat up and beamed a giant smile at her coach. Abby was one of the only people in her life who always supported her. She was like the older sister Therese had always wanted growing up.

“Which brings me to my next decision as coach. You both need to get into sync, you need to know where the other person is and what they’re going to do before even they do. So, I want you both doing your daily workouts together and I also want you two to do one non-tennis related activity together once a week.” Abby stuck up a finger to silence Carol before she could argue. “I don’t care what you both do, you could get dinner, watch a movie, sit on the subway in companionable silence, I don’t care. It just has to be done together and for at least one hour.”

Therese quickly agreed, excited but also nervous to spend all of that time with Carol. She currently worked out with her trainer three times a week and twice a week just by herself, she imagined Carol would now join her for those three times with her trainer. And then on top of that, court practice, and a mandatory one hour hang out session, they would be spending close to thirty hours a week together. 

Carol, on the other hand, looked conflicted. After what could only be described as an inner war had finally ended, Carol just nodded her head quietly, agreeing to Abby’s demands.

“I knew you’d see it my way,” Abby smirked. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case any of you find it unrealistic that Therese is a professional player and has never before played doubles please just know that it is incredibly possible especially for younger players and it always makes me laugh.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woah an update in 1 week!! Who knew it was possible??
> 
> The US Open has really just inspired me to write lately. It's my favorite major tournament and my favorite player won tonight so I'm feeling pretty good. Did any of you watch the match? It was certainly a tough one to watch :/
> 
> Anyway, hope you all enjoy the chapter! We're slowly moving forward. Next chapter will have some more tennis ;)

**November 13th, 2017**

**New York**

 

Therese was early at the gym that morning, getting there before both Abby and Carol. She took her time putting her bags down and lacing up her shoes, no real rush needed seeing as how she was alone. Once she was all set she began stretching, getting her muscles loose before setting off on a short run around the full gym. 

She let her mind wander while she jogged. The past two weeks had been...okay. Therese and Carol had seen each other almost every single day (Abby swore by Sundays off) either on the tennis court or with their athletic trainer. Things were just always awkward.

Carol wasn't necessarily mean all the time, but she was never really that nice. She just didn't seem to have any patience for Therese’s lack of doubles knowledge. There was just so much to learn! She was definitely getting better, though, both Abby and Carol had said as much. 

Abby arrived while Therese was jogging around, looking as tired as she did every single morning. They shared a small wave of acknowledgment before both went back to their individual tasks. 

Abby started setting up the courts, sweeping the clay into random patterns and wiping the tape. The coach finished the first court by the time Therese was done warming up. She moved to help her in silence, both of them almost done with the last court by the time Carol burst through the doors.

Both coach and player turned towards the entrance doors as they slammed open, a clearly irate Carol walking through them.

“What the fuck is this?” Carol raged, waving a newspaper in the air. Therese looked towards Abby in confusion. She had never seen Carol this angry before or Abby look that guilty.

“Carol, why don't you just calm down and we’ll talk about it like adults?” Abby asked, only to enrage the other woman even more.

“Calm down? When were you going to tell us you signed us up for a tournament? It’s in a fucking week, Abby!”

Therese paled at Carol’s words. They weren't ready for a tournament; she still sucked at doubles! 

“How is that even possible? Aren't all of the WTA leagues finished for this year?” Therese asked in confusion, two pairs of eyes cutting to her, Carol’s softening as she turned to her younger partner. 

“You're right, Therese, but you're also wrong. You forgot about the 125k series.” Abby supplied in explanation.

Realization dawned on Therese but then lead to further confusion.125k was another WTA series, with tournaments all over the world. Therese had never played in one, choosing to play in the bigger main WTA tournaments, but she knew the competition would still be good there. 

“How were you even able to get us in? We’re unranked for doubles and Carol is completely unranked.” Therese asked.

Carol thrust the newspaper she had been holding into Therese’s hands without a word.

‘Ross Back in the Swing?’ the headline read. Underneath the title was a picture of Carol with her tennis bag heading into the gym. She had worn the outfit in the photo only 2 days ago, so all of this must have been very recent.

Therese quickly skimmed through the front page article, not at all surprised to see she wasn't mentioned once. Not as if she was her partner or anything important like that. It was short and sweet, questioning if this was the return of ‘tennis great, Carol Ross’ and mentioning she would be heading to Hawaii in one week.

Therese looked up from the page to see Carol putting her bags down. It seemed as though she was calming down. 

Maybe not.

“You don't get to throw my name around, not without talking to me about it first. Jesus Christ, Abby, everyone is going to see this!” Carol exclaimed to a calm Abby.

“People were going to find out anyway, Carol. Did you really think ‘America’s Tennis Sweetheart’ was going to hit the court again and people wouldn't talk about it?” Abby asked combatively. 

Carol sighed, “That’s exactly why I wanted to play doubles. No one cares about doubles,” Carol deflated onto the bench, bent over with her hands in her head. Abby sighed as well, sitting next to her friend.

“Carol, honey, your return to tennis was going to be talked about, no matter what you played. Singles, doubles, fuck, even mixed doubles, you’re too big of a name to go unnoticed. You left without saying a word and now you’re trying to rejoin five whole years later in the same fashion. They’re going to talk. And Harge was going to find out eventually.” Abby explained as she rubbed Carol’s back. 

Carol tightened up at the mention of her husband; ex-husband Therese assumed. Clearly Carol didn’t want the man to know she was playing again. Therese had an idea as to why but she was too nervous to ask outright. She imagined the older woman would tear her head off if she asked her any sort of personal question.

“Let's just get started,” Carol decided as she shrugged off Abby’s hand and stood up. “We have to prepare for the tournament after all.” And with that Carol was off on the court and ready to go.

 

* * *

 

 

**November 19th, 2017**

**Honolulu, Hawaii**

 

Therese lounged back on the large hotel bed, flipping through channels on the TV. The shower turned off in the ensuite bathroom, Carol’s voice filtering through the room. “Darling, would you grab my robe? I seem to have forgotten it on the chair.” Carol requested. 

Therese sprang into action, not thinking much about the request or the wording. They had grown even closer throughout the past week before their flight that morning, hours spent on the courts and with the trainer, they had even spent time together outside of tennis twice that week. The first time they had gone to a coffee shop again, talking mainly about other tennis players and doubles strategy. The second time wasn’t planned. They had been leaving the gym after Abby had made them watch old doubles matches for five hours when Therese’s stomach growled loud enough for Carol to hear. To Therese’s surprise, Carol had asked if she wanted to get dinner together to which the younger player enthusiastically agreed. They had spent hours in a nearby Panera, talking about anything from Therese’s childhood to funny stories about Abby. They wound up losing track of time, Therese sprinting out of the place when she realized she had completely stood up Richard for their date. As Therese ran out though, she couldn’t help but feel that she would have much rather stayed with Carol.

The use of the term of endearment, ‘darling’, had started soon after. Therese had heard Carol use it before, many times in fact, in interviews, when talking to Abby, and even when on the phone placing an order, but never for her. The first time Carol had called Therese ‘darling’ it seemed to almost be a slip, but Carol played it cool enough for the younger player not to question, but after that the word seemed to just become peppered into random sentences at random times. It felt nice and Therese only recently stopped blushing when she heard it directed towards her, well maybe not fully.

Therese grabbed the robe from off the chair and walked over to the bathroom, knocking twice on the door, before Carol poked her wet head out. She opened the door a bit more to reach her arm out to grab the robe and Therese found her eyes mesmerized by the wet, glowing skin in front of her. 

Her eyes tracked up the slender arm towards the older woman’s face and was met with a wink once their eyes met. Therese blushed instantly, her face growing red and hot, as Carol took the robe and shut the door.

Therese stood in front of the door much like a statue even after the door closed, her mouth agape. A very naked Carol had just winked at her! Of course it didn’t mean anything, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to freak out anyway. The younger player made her way over to the furthermost bed, the one they decided would be hers because it was closer to the window, and planted face first into the pillows with a grunt. 

Carol emerged from the steamy bathroom a few minutes later, pausing in between the beds right by Therese. “Tired from the flight?” Carol asked in jest.

Therese rolled over, looking up at Carol, the light shining on her making her look like an angel in the flesh. She was towel drying her hair, rubbing the strands through the fluffy towel, as she looked down at Therese, one eyebrow raised in question. 

“How would you do it?” Therese asked vaguely. Carol moved the towel from her hair, done drying the short crop off, and gestured towards Therese vaguely. “What the hell are you talking about?” Carol asked with a chuckle.

If someone were to ask her what the most shocking part of meeting her idol was, Therese would, without a doubt, say it was Carol’s use of profanity. The words were often just mixed into casual sentences and other times they were added for extra bite, context being the only way to know how it was being used.

“I mean flying all over the world and just playing the next day like it’s nothing. How did you do it? Every single time I feel like I'm dying.” Therese complained, rolling back onto her stomach. 

The sound of Carol sitting down on the other bed had her rolling back over. Therese swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling very dry as she looked over at the older woman. Carol’s bathrobe had opened slightly when she sat, her bare legs crossed one over the other, showing quite a bit of skin. Of course Therese had seen Carol’s legs before, tennis skirts were often sinfully short, after all, but she currently found her eyes stuck. If Carol noticed, she didn't comment on it.

“It's never easy, it's sort of something you just learn to live with. This whole ‘sharing a room’ thing is something I'm going to have to get used to, though.” Carol teased, even though Therese knew she wasn't fully kidding.

“Abby just wants us to spend time together so she doesn't have to dedicate so much time to coaching us. She probably figures we’ll either get so close we won't need her anymore or we’ll kill each other. Either way she'll be free from us.” Therese joked, laughing harder when Carol joined her in laughter. 

As their laughter subsided they just stayed in their positions, Therese laying on her side with her head in her hand and Carol sitting on the opposite bed with legs folded and arms behind her to relax back. Eventually Carol sat up straight and then stood up, prompting Therese to do the same. 

“Go quickly take a shower and we’ll go get some dinner, I'm starved.” Carol suggested, though her tone didn't leave much room for disagreement. 

Therese popped up in bed, folding her feet under her. “Is there a restaurant here in the hotel? Or did you want to go out?” Therese questioned. Carol looked over at the clock, it was well past 7pm so Therese doubted many restaurants would even be open much longer. “We can always eat something at the bar downstairs. Now hurry up.” 

 

* * *

 

 

**November 20, 2017**

**Honolulu, Hawaii**

 

_ “We’re live at The Hawaii Open, I'm Paul Annacone and at my side is the lovely Martina Navratilova. Martina, how are you this morning?”  _

_ “Thanks, Paul, I'm doing great, and you want to know why?” _

_ “Oh I already know why, but why don't you tell the folks at home.” _

_ “This morning at 11:00am starts the first round of the tournament and this first round comes with quite a bit of a shock. Our first match this morning will be played by the Taiwanese duo, Shu-ying Hsieh and her older sister, Su-Wei Hsieh, and they will be playing against - ready for it? - Carol Ross!” _

_ “And let's not forget about her doubles partner, Therese Belivet. Let’s pull up some of her stats!” _

_ “I have the statistics right here, Paul, and looking at this it just makes me wonder, where did Ross find this girl? She's currently at her highest ranking, 98, when comparing to Ross’s highest ranking, 1, it seems a little...weird.” _

_ “I have to assume they met through another former number 1 tennis player, Abigail Gerhard. She currently coaches Belivet, has been for about five years now, though she’s only been on the tour for the past three. It does bring up the question, though, as to why they are even playing together?” _

_ “Well, we know Ross played doubles with Gerhard a few times in the early 2010’s, they even won a few majors together. I can only assume Ross is trying to get back into the game in a less physically grueling way.” _

_ “But we’ve never seen Belivet play doubles, have we, Martina? Why not pick a more experienced partner?” _

 

Carol switched the radio off in the player workout center, all eyes on her as she did so, though no one said a word. Therese kept her head down as she stretched, trying to keep people from seeing how red her face was. She wasn’t used to hearing announcers talk about her, especially in such a way - Abby had never really let her listen to announcements or read any articles about herself. It was probably for the best. 

Carol sat back down next to her and resumed stretching in silence. It wasn’t until later when they were tossing the medicine ball back and forth that she finally broke the silence.

“Don’t let them get to you too much; Paul Annacone is the worst.” Carol joked, hoping to bring out a smile from Therese. The younger player attempted a smile, but both of them knew it was fake. “We’re just going to go out there and play our game. We’ve been working hard, you’ve learned a lot, we’re as ready as we’ll ever be.” Carol explained. 

“We have a tough first match, though, they’re way more experienced than I am and they’ve been playing doubles together much longer than we have.” The younger player complained, showing her age. Carol sighed and turned her body to face her partner’s.

“Listen to me, Therese, because I’m only going to say this once. I picked  _ you _ to play doubles with, okay? Don’t sell yourself short, darling, we’re in this together. As far as I’m concerned, this tournament doesn’t even matter, nothing matters except the majors. Each match we play is just a stepping stone until we reach the US Open, that’s the only tournament I care about. No more of this crap, alright?” 

Carol ended by placing her hand on Therese’s knee and leaning forward, showing the younger player just how serious she was. Therese looked down at the warm hand, absorbing what Carol had just said to her. She finally ripped her eyes away from the skin on skin contact to stare directly into Carol’s eyes, her mind set. She placed her hand on top of Carol’s and squeezed.

“I’m ready.”


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! This was a hard chapter to write so it's a little shorter sorry!!

**November 20, 2017**

**Honolulu, Hawaii**

 

Nobody watched doubles matches, especially women’s doubles. It was just a fact of life, one many tennis players learned to accept. Which was why Therese was absolutely stunned to see the very small stadium absolutely filled to the brim. Not that that was saying much, this was easily the smallest stadium Therese had ever played in after all, but there were people trying to sit on the steps, on people’s laps; it was mayhem. Therese tried to get all of the noise out of her mind while she warmed up with Carol at her side. The older woman looked completely unaffected, which wasn’t too surprising, Carol had played in front of  _ much _ bigger crowds and in much larger stadiums. 

As they approached their bench for last minute preparations before the match, Therese scanned the crowd in front of her. Many were holding large tennis balls, waving them around as they tried to get anyone’s attention and signature. Therese has signed a few balls in her career, though it was mainly by fans who just wanted signatures, it didn’t matter who the person was actually signing it. She could tell that this was different, though. They didn’t care about her in this moment, they cared about Carol. They chanted her name as they waved their arms in the air, hoping beyond hope that the woman would notice them.

“Try not to pay too much attention to them and just drown it all out,” Carol advised as she wiped her glistening arms with her towel. Therese followed the movement of the towel with her eyes, nodding her head at Carol’s words but not really registering what they meant. Carol threw the towel aside when she was done with it and reached into her bag, pulling out a white visor. 

“I know doubles players don’t have to match, but that ruins a lot of the fun, doesn’t it? I got us these visors to provide us some unity.” Carol handed Therese the visor before slipping on her own. Their opponents were wearing perfectly matching outfits, as serial doubles players, especially siblings, normally did. Therese enjoyed the synchronicity of matching doubles players so she put the visor on quickly, excited to match with Carol even slightly. Once on her head, she looked up at the older woman with a blinding smile, Carol returned the grin in kind. 

 

. . .

 

The coin toss came back in their favor, both easily agreeing to serve first. Carol walked with Therese to the baseline, fist over her mouth before speaking. 

“We have to come out hot, test the net and keep it flat, alright?” Carol said, her words muffled by her fist. “Why are you doing that?” Therese asked confused, both hands at her sides and her nose scrunched up. Carol moved her fist back down. 

“What the hell are you talking about?” Carol asked, a little agitated. “I can hardly understand you when you’re covering your mouth.” Therese explained, pulling a groan from Carol. Her patience was always so short lived. “It’s just what doubles players do. So no one can hear us or read our lips.” Carol brought her hand to her face, bending her head slightly forward, and let out a deep calming breath, making the fans close enough to see the squabble laugh.

Carol let out one last soft sigh before tapping Therese’s lower back. “Serve it out, you got it.” Carol encouraged, before walking up towards the net. Once in position, she bent low at the waist, giving Therese enough room to serve right over her head and down the T. As the younger player expected, Carol put up two fingers.

Therese bounced lightly at the baseline before winding up for a power serve flying right over Carol’s head. Right as the ball passed the net, the older player bounced back up, ready to receive the line drive return passing quickly to her right. She thrust her left arm out across her body, slicing the backhand right at the other net player, Su-Wei. The ball bounced right at her feet, the Taiwanese player scrambling backwards to scoop the ball up. The ball passed high over the net, arcing to the left and set Carol up for a perfect overhead smash. She extended up and left the ground, meeting the ball with her racquet on its journey back down to the court. Carol snapped her wrist hard, the ball plummeted back down onto the hard court and smacking back up just as hard, flying into the stadium seating behind the Taiwanese duo. 

The crowd erupted in applause over Carol’s shot and Therese was left in awe. Of course she had seen Carol play the net before, they had been practicing for weeks now, but this Carol was different; she had a fire to her that Therese had never seen before in the flesh. Carol turned towards Therese and made her way back to the baseline to meet the younger woman. Once in front of her she extended her hand forward, palm up. When Therese didn’t move Carol took the younger player’s wrist and moved her hand to connect them in a high five. 

“After every point we talk. I know we don’t do much of that in practice, but out here it’s different. It’ll keep both of our heads in the game. Some sort of physical touch is normally good for morale as well.” As if to prove her own point, Carol put her hand on Therese’s shoulder and squeezed lightly. “And good serve. Keep it up.” She praised. Carol had certainly proved her point because Therese moved to set up for her second serve feeling giddy and much lighter. 

 

. . . 

 

Four points later and Therese and Carol won the first game. They took the long way around as they switched sides of the court, talking quietly about defensive strategy. 

“The aggression of the first game was good, let’s try to keep that up here as well. Expect me up at the net with you for a majority of points.” Carol mumbled behind her hand forcing Therese to stand much closer to Carol than she normally would. After she finished her instructions, Carol lightly patted Therese on the shoulder again and gave her a small push towards the net, the older player taking her place to receive the serve. 

 

. . . 

 

Seven games later and neither duo had broken the other just yet. Therese set up to serve, the score 4-4 in games. They took the first two points easily, Therese serving hard and out wide resulting in one ace and one unforced error. The next three points fired back in quick succession, bringing the Taiwanese duo to a break point.  

Carol came back to the baseline, taking Therese’s hand in a firm grip. “You look like you're about to throw up,” Carol noted. “Just take a deep breath and serve your serve. Go for the kick, draw them to me.” The older player squeezed Therese’s hand. “You got it, alright?” And Therese believed her.

She wound up for the kick serve and brushed the ball hard and fast, watching as it curved to the left, barely landing in the box. Carol anticipated the curve and moved over to the left, ready to intercept the return. Unexpectedly, Su-Wei wrapped her forehand around and drove the ball down the line, straight past Carol, the older woman not having enough time to stick her non-dominant hand out. 

“Game - Hsieh / Hsieh,” the umpire announced.

The next game followed suit, the Taiwanese duo easily serving out the game in 4 straight points.

Carol and Therese moved to their seats, taking a quick drink for the court switch. Therese turned to Carol, trying to control her emotions.

“I'm sorry, Carol. They broke on my serve.” Therese apologized, wiping the few tears that had dared to fall.

Carol breathed out a deep sigh and paused before turning to Therese.

“Stop crying.” The older player said to Therese’s complete surprise. She was probably never going to get used to Carol’s hot and cold personality. 

“You can't place blame on individual players in doubles, it'll just rip our game apart. This match isn't over, don't blame yourself and don't show them a weakness.”

Therese absorbed the words, understood their importance, but still felt a few more tears fall. Why had she expected Carol to comfort her? Even more than that, why did the idea of disappointing Carol constantly torment her. She placed her towel over her face and leaned back, keeping her face off of any cameras, in an attempt to control her emotions. She jumped slightly as she felt a warm palm on her knee, the action wracking a shiver through her body. New tears sprang to her eyes, happy ones this time. They didn't fall until she felt the hand give a small squeeze and then continue to stay in place. 

 

. . .

 

The second set ran much like the first. Therese had a new fire to her, now knowing that she had the support of her partner behind her. They went 12 full games without either duo breaking the other forcing a tie-breaker in the second set. Carol excelled at tie-breakers and she had the statistics to prove it. It was probably because of how calm, cool, and collected she always was on the court. Unfortunately, Therese was the exact opposite with tie-breakers. Therese wondered if tie-breakers in doubles matches were different from singles ones. She supposed she’d find out soon enough. 

Carol served out the first point, getting the quick ace. 1-0. Therese went to set up for Carol’s next serve, but grew confused as players stepped off the court. The younger player quickly jogged up to catch up with Carol. 

“Where are we going?” Therese asked in confusion. They only played one point, not six. 

“Smaller USTA tournaments use the Coman method for doubles. We rotate after points 1, 5, 9, etc. It's to allow players to continue to serve on the same side they've been serving from the whole match. It's nice, I guess, but a lot of rotating.” Carol explained before taking a quick swig of water. 

Therese nodded along in understanding as she drank. Seemed easy enough.

The points went back and forth throughout the tiebreaker, neither team breaking the other’s serve. 

At 5-5, Su-Wei wound up the serve to Carol on the deuce court. It went wide to her backhand on the right side. She lunged after it and reached out across her body with her left hand, slicing the ball back in a last ditch effort to get the return. The ball lobbed high in the air, Shu-ying shuffling back to perfectly line up the overhead slam. Therese left her post at the next and sprinted back, on her toes to receive the smash. 

Carol approached the net, cutting off the straight angle in an assumption that the smash wouldn't be directed right at her. Shu-ying slammed the ball down right at Carol, forcing the older American player to jump out of the way, barely missing her. Their opponents began a small celebration of the shot, Carol understanding the point had ended as well, when Therese sprinted into action, her feet carrying her quickly to the right side of the court. The ball bounced high up, quickly launching into the stands. Therese jumped up in a last ditch effort and hit an overhead of her own, rocketing the ball cross court. 

Neither Taiwanese player expected the return, Su-Wei scrambling to get to the ball. She sent the ball back a little wobbly, setting Carol up for an easy forehand volley in between both frazzled players.

The crowd erupted in cheers as the ball bounced off to the side, the point over and won - the break achieved. 

Carol turned back to Therese, jogging over to the younger partner. The veteran player grabbed Therese by the shoulder, pulling her in for a quick and tight embrace. Therese’s brain short circuited as she felt their sweaty bodies holding each other tightly, the sound of the crowd drowning out in the background as her blood pumped loudly in her head. 

Carol pulled back quickly, the hug not lasting much time, and looked down at Therese with the widest smile the younger player had ever seen from her in person. 

“Didn’t you trust me?” Therese teased, trying to get ahold of herself and her rapidly beating heart that had absolutely more to do with the hug than the half court sprint and adrenaline.

“Not at all.” Carol teased back, mimicking their conversation from weeks prior. “Not at all,” she repeated in an awed whisper.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I've had this chapter planned out since the beginning and it was still difficult to write haha. Anyway, enjoy!

**November 26, 2017**

**New Jersey**

 

Carol looked out the window of her kitchen while she stirred the contents of the pot in front of her. Therese was late. The girl was often late when they planned to meet up in the city, but this was the first time the younger woman would be coming to her home; Carol hoped she wasn't lost. 

They hadn't seen each other since their loss in the first round of the Hawaii Open, both of them taking some time off for the holidays. They wound up losing in a third set 10-point tie breaker. Therese had been so thrown off with a whole set being decided by just 10 points, Carol wondered if the outcome would have been different if they had played a natural set. 

It felt weird not seeing the younger woman every single day; Carol actually missed her a bit. 

Their public loss seemed to bring them even closer together. They hopped on Abby’s jet almost immediately after so they could be home for Thanksgiving, not that Carol cared much for the holiday, but Therese had big plans with her boyfriend and friends. So they had left. The whole flight home was filled with conversation and laughter between the three of them, a stark contrast to the relatively quiet flight there. 

Carol was starting to trust Therese, and she didn’t really know when this all started. She found herself answering questions, even personal ones. Not only that, but she actually  _ wanted _ to tell Therese things. She always seemed so hesitant to ask, but Carol was ready to answer. She hadn’t spoken about herself and her life in so long she almost seemed to forget how. 

The sound of a car door slamming brought Carol’s eyes back to the window. She didn’t mean to snoop on the younger woman and her boyfriend, or at least she assumed the boy who had driven her was her boyfriend, but she found herself captivated regardless.

She watched as he began getting out of the car to Therese’s complete dismay. She lowered the heat on the stove and wiped her hands to go answer the door. She turned the knob and opened the front entrance with a soft smile, ready to make introductions she really had no interest in making, which quickly turned to a smirk as her eyes landed on the clearly perturbed Therese. She leaned forward, one hand remaining on the door, and connected her cheek with the younger woman’s for a light kiss.

“Lovely to see you, Therese. And who is this?” Carol asked as she gestured towards Richard with her head, remaining in Therese’s personal space. 

The younger woman sputtered for a bit, before bouncing back and answering. “This is Richard,” she introduced. “Richard, this is Carol.”

Richard stuck his hand out immediately, Carol slowly lifting hers for a firm handshake.

“Therese has told me so much about you,” Carol drawled. She actually hadn't. Therese talked about her friends, the brothers, quite often, but always stayed rather quiet regarding the young man in front of her. The response seemed to be the right one, Richard standing taller and smug while Therese shot daggers at her. 

“Well, that's cool,” Richard preened. “So what time should I come pick her up?” He asked. The question reminded Carol of playdates she used to set up for Rindy, Therese wasn't three years old, though. She chanced a glance towards the younger woman before speaking. 

“Don’t worry about coming all the way back out here. I'll drive her to the station later, I'm assuming an adult such as Therese can navigate a train home by herself.”

Nobody spoke in response, all eyes on Carol. Therese finally broke the silence. “Uh, yeah, Richard, I can just take the train. Thanks, though.” She responded. Richard looked slightly dejected at the refusal for a ride but recovered with a smile. “Okay, I'll talk to you later, then, Terry. Love you.” Richard leaned down for a kiss, Therese turning her face at the last second so his lips landed on her cheek. Carol wondered if the younger woman was embarrassed to kiss in front of her. Her thoughts changed as Therese waved goodbye to her boyfriend without returning the words of affection. Richard looked slightly shocked but left without another word as Carol shut her front door. 

Once they were alone Carol looked down at her partner, a smirk on her lips. “Well then, come along  _ Terry.”  _ She teased, pulling a groan from the woman behind her. 

 

. . . 

 

Carol placed the plate of food in front of Therese at the dining room table, placing her own in front of her seat before sitting across from the younger woman. Their eyes met above their food, Therese offering a small smile to her host. 

“Bon appetit.” Carol announced before lightly cutting into the fish on her plate. They ate in relative silence, the only noises to be heard being the cutlery scratching on the plates. Therese looked back up at Carol, placing her fork down before dabbing lightly at her mouth with the napkin in front of her. “You have a lovely home,” Therese complimented, her eyes briefly looking around the open dining room and kitchen. “Thank you,” Carol responded with a soft smile.

She had always been proud of her house and the life she had made for herself. This place was hers and only hers, the first time in her life she could really say that. It wasn't too large, she could easily afford bigger, especially outside of the city. But she didn't need a big house just for herself and the occasional visit from Abby. 

“How was your Thanksgiving? Did you get to see Rindy?” Therese asked. And just like that Carol’s mood was ruined. She clenched her fists on the table, attempting to control her anger in front of Therese. She told herself she’d try to stop taking her anger out on the younger woman, especially when she wasn't the cause of said anger. So instead of lashing out, she replied with a simple, “No,” and then found herself elaborating anyway as Therese’s puppy dog eyes frequently had her doing. “I spent the day with Abby; it was nice. Harge said he might allow me to see Rindy around Christmas,” she added, the anecdote bringing a large grin to Therese’s face. 

“That's so wonderful to hear.” Therese replied, looking genuinely happy for Carol. She had told Therese during a previous lunch outing that Harge had sole custody of their little girl, an admission that had Therese asking more and more until Carol finally snapped, ending the meal early. The younger woman seemed wiser this time, not asking any more questions but continuing to leave her with the blinding smile. Carol found Therese’s smile to leave her feeling warmer and happier, often times completely distracting her from the original task at hand. 

She was so distracted by the warmth pouring out of Therese that Carol was shocked when she felt a smaller hand covering her own on the table and without thought, Carol flipped her hand over, connecting their palms. They both stared down at the connected hands. Carol was shocked by the surprising softness of Therese’s palm, she pulled her hand back slightly so she could run her fingers along the younger woman’s feeling the rough calluses against her own. 

Therese’s hand was so soft and small and warm. Carol hadn’t held many hands in her life; her parents’ and grandparents’ and coaches’ as she was growing up, Abby’s in the comfort and serenity of a hotel room after a tournament, Harge’s as he courted her, Rindy’s as she lead her through the world, and now Therese. Each one felt different, both in physical touch and emotional weight, but this moment felt like all wrapped into one. The comfort from family, the butterflies of courtship, the strength of friendship, and so much more. 

She was way too overwhelmed.    
Carol pulled her hand back quickly, as if holding Therese’s hand for one more second would physically pain her, her chair falling behind her as she all but jumped out of her seat. She didn’t dare look at Therese, afraid to even think of what sort of emotion would be found on the girl’s ever expressional face. She didn’t dare think about what any of that meant, the emotions she had just felt; had been feeling before today if she really thought about it. But she wouldn’t. Not now.

“You said you wanted to see the court in the back, right? I just had the lines repainted last week.” She still refused to make eye contact with the younger woman, even as she waited for Therese’s response. 

“Yes, of course, I’d love to,” she responded. While Carol might not have been looking at Therese, she still heard the hurt in her words. 

 

. . . 

 

The awkwardness that Carol had caused with her outburst stayed with them as they entered the gardens at the back of the house. Carol's home may have been small, but her grounds were anything but. It was a large reason she wanted to live out in New Jersey as opposed to Long Island like Abby. 

The backyard stretched for acres, Carol didn't even really know where they ended. They first walked through the gardens, the court being further back but still able to be seen from their position. Therese walked a little further ahead, stopping by the fountain, sitting on the edge. 

“It's all so beautiful back here,” Therese marveled, looking around at the flowers and benches surrounding them. Therese looked as though she belonged out there in the garden, just another beautiful fixture among the flowers, almost like an elf or a fairy. She complimented the grounds as much as they complimented her. Carol tried to imagine the two of them here in the warmer months, Therese in a flowing sundress, a straw hat on her head to protect her fair skin, as the fountain gurgled in the background. It was time for a new train of thought. 

“You should come around when we’re back in New York for the US Open next year. It’s much more beautiful out here when the weather is warmer.” Carol found herself saying instead, the idea of her small fantasy coming to life being too strong to pass up. It was almost as though the mere mention of the cold weather reminded Therese how cold it actually was. The younger woman pulled her coat tighter around herself, her cheeks red from the wind. Carol tried hard to come up with a time she’d seen an image more adorable than the one in front of her. “Why don't we continue on?” Carol asked. “Don't want you dying from frostbite on my watch,” she joked earning a small laugh in response. 

 

. . .

 

The tour hadn't lasted very long, both women much too cold to spend too much time out in the open air, not to mention the lingering awkwardness. Carol quickly lit a fire once they were back and settled in the living room. She stayed sat close to the flames, Therese joining her to warm up faster. 

Her thoughts strayed to Rindy, as they so often did, as she watched the flames dance. What would her life be like right now if Rindy were still with her? She definitely wouldn’t be playing tennis, which meant she wouldn’t be with Therese.

“Rindy’s never seen me play tennis, at least not in person. He made me, I mean, I quit after she was born and never really had a chance to pick up a racquet until recently.” Carol had no idea why she was revealing what she was, but she felt an overwhelming need to tell Therese things. Anything.

“I think Rindy would like you a lot, Therese.” Carol whispered to the fire in front of her. She wondered if Therese had heard her, the silence stretching between them. 

“Why do you say that?” The younger woman finally asked, her body turned more towards Carol after asking. Carol stayed where she was, too afraid to look at Therese at the moment. “It’s your warmth and your honesty. You burn brighter than the sun.”  _ Just like my Rindy,  _ went unsaid. Carol found the words instantly embarrassing, thankful she wasn't looking at her partner next to her. 

Carol stiffened slightly as she felt a hand rest on her thigh, drawing her attention towards the younger woman. There was no longing look, no thought, as their faces drew closer and their lips met. It was barely a brush of lips, the pressure so small, as if Therese were afraid Carol would bolt at any second. The younger woman was the one to pull back first, Carol keeping her eyes closed for a beat longer. As the action finally registered in her brain, her eyes shot open, meeting the hopeful and shining ones in front of her. She backed up immediately, her hand covering her mouth before the words erupted from her mouth.

“Shit, Therese, I'm sorry, but I'm not…” Ready. The final word was left unspoken. For the first time since they had met just one month ago, Carol couldn't tell what Therese feeling. Her face was emotionless, walls up high. Carol wanted nothing more than to take the younger woman into her arms, but fear kept her rooted to her spot instead. 

Therese stood up first, wrapping her coat tighter around herself. She refused to make eye contact with Carol, something the older woman couldn’t tell if she even wanted in this moment. Now it was Therese’s turn to look like a wild animal, her body shaking slightly with nerves. Carol’s mind was racing, telling her to say something, anything, to make it okay. But she couldn’t, because a large part of her wanted to run out as well. 

“I'd better just go.” Therese whispered out before turning and walking quickly down the hallway towards the front door. Carol trailed after her. “Therese, please, stop. You don't even know where you're going. The train is about 3 miles from here and it's much too cold to walk.” She wrapped her hand around the younger woman’s upper arm in an attempt to stop her. Therese quickly pulled her arm out of Carol’s grasp, her face still devoid of any emotion. Their eyes met briefly before Therese turned back around and out the door. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pls don't hate me!   
> Also I want to explain the Carol in this AU a bit. One of the parts of Carol (the character) that always struck me was her inability to really do something that was for herself or that she wanted due to the time period and restraints on women and all that. I really wanted to keep that here in this AU but since it's modern day it's a little harder to spin the 'woman without agency' thing. So I've created this Carol to be one of those child sport prodigies, the ones that practice 24/7 and don't have any time for much else. Many tennis kids will drop out of school and join academies where they train day in and day out, but the super rich tennis kids don't always go to academies. They get home schooled and have private lessons, basically taken away from the life a child should have. That's the Carol I'm writing here, a woman who didn't grow up with friends, was never able to make a decision for herself, and doesn't really know what she wants or even how to get the few things she *does* want!   
> As the chapters go on, Therese will get glimpses into Carol's past and learn why she is the way she is, but I felt like I really needed to explain myself (and also Carol) after this chapter. Because this ending is essentially a woman panicking after getting something (someone) she wants for herself, a decision she would have to make on her own. So please don't hate me! We still have a while to go and next chapter we'll actually start the 2018 tennis season. Finally!! 
> 
> Feel free to leave a comment if you loved it (or if you hated it and hate me now). I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts :)

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you can, even if to just say you liked it. Once again, I'm totally willing to answer any tennis questions, especially as we start getting into tournaments/actual game play.  
> You can also hmu on tumblr - @catstealers. I love to talk about tennis and also Carol :)


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